Al-Hilal players Ruben Neves and João Cancelo were inconsolable and broke down during a minute’s silence in honour of their Portuguese teammate Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva who died in a car crash on Thursday. The minute’s silence was held during the FIFA Club World Cup quarter-final match against Fluminense FC.In the day’s second quarter-final, Chelsea’s Pedro Neto carried a special shirt mentioning the names of Diogo and Andre while walking towards the pitch.The match marked the trio’s first appearance since learning about the tragic incident in Spain involving their longtime teammate from Portugal.Neves and Cancelo were visibly emotional during the pre-match tributes, with Cancelo needing to pause and kneel on the grass when images of Jota and Andre appeared on the screen.Jota shared a significant history with both Neves and Cancelo, having played together for over six years in Portugal and celebrating a Nations League triumph. Neves and Jota also played together at Wolves in the Premier League before Jota’s transfer to Liverpool in 2020.Al-Hilal’s head coach Simone Inzaghi addressed the emotional impact of the situation on his players, stating: “We all know it’s a very sad day because of what happened to Diogo and André. These things should never happen. We’re all aware of the tragedy. We have two Portugal players Rúben Neves and João Cancelo who were friends to them. Today has been a very difficult day for all of us. We tried to work in the same way but the atmosphere was different. It’s a very, very sad tragedy.”Neves shared his feelings through an emotional Instagram post: “Wherever you are, I know you’ll read this. We’ve never been that stupid and maybe now I regret it a little, but you know what you mean to me as much as I know what I mean to you… Life brought us together and now it can’t separate us. We’ve achieved beautiful things together, we still have a lot to achieve, I know we’ll make it. Starting today, you’ll enter the field with me, and we’ll follow our path together, on the stage where we met. Diogoal, you are my favorite lemonade!!”The match concluded with Al-Hilal losing 2-1 to Fluminense, eliminating them from the Club World Cup competition.
