If Al Hilal have a legitimate claim to being Saudi Arabia's biggest club, Al Ahli aren't that far behind.
Along with Al Nassr and Al Ittihad, they are widely regarded as the 'Big Four' of the Saudi Pro League. They were among the competition's founding clubs in 1976 and are the quartet backed by the country's sovereign wealth fund -- Public Investment Fund -- that has been the catalyst behind Saudi Arabian football's recent boom.
Al Hilal are still the most-successful club in the land with a record 19 SPL titles to their name. Al Ahli have a creditable haul of nine to their names but did have to recover from unthinkable relegation back in 2022.
On Tuesday, Al Ahli got one over their fierce rivals -- recording a 3-1 victory over Al Hilal to book their place in the AFC Champions League Elite final at the expense of the tournament's record four-time winners.
And perhaps given all the glitz and glamour that has surrounded the SPL in recent times, the difference between the two teams was simply a matter of substance over style.
When Al Nassr first pulled off the previously-unfathomble by luring Cristiano Ronaldo to Riyadh, it ignited a race to lure other global stars to the SPL.
Lionel Messi was the other coveted gem but, given he would ultimately choose America as his next destination, who was the next best thing?
Neymar. And it was unsurprising that Al Hilal would emerge triumphant in the battle for his signature.
Yet, for all the positive aspects the move garnered off the field in raising the profile of the club, the league and Saudi Arabian football as a whole, it did not quite match up on the pitch.
The Brazil international ended up playing just seven games for Al Hilal.
It was largely through no fault of his own as an anterior cruciate ligament injury sustained while on international duty ruled him out for the majority of the 2023-24 season.
His commitment to the cause however can be questioned as, upon returning to full fitness, he soon found a return to boyhood club Santos impossible to resist -- although it must be acknowledged that, by then, Al Hilal also appeared to be receptive to the idea of cutting their losses.
Al Ahli have a Brazilian ace of their own, and Roberto Firmino is hardly a slouch himself when it comes to samba flair.
Yet, he is equally renowned for his enterprise as his ability. The adulation he received at Liverpool stemmed from his selfless ways as he often performed the thankless tasks that allowed Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mané to bask in the limelight.
Firmino continues to shine at Al Ahli. On Tuesday, he opened the scoring against Al Hilal with an exquisite finish, was involved in the build-up to Ivan Toney's goal which followed, and was at the heart of everything his side created.
Franck Kessié is known more as a box-to-box force of nature but he consistently performs his role to perfection for Al Ahli, even if his play might not be as aesthically pleasing as Al Hilal's Rúben Neves or, to a lesser extent, Sergej Milinković-Savić.
Algeria do not have much previous history of churning out world-class players but, in Riyad Mahrez, Al Ahli might have captured the sole person from the North African nation that can lay claim to such status.
For all his style, Mahrez also delivers when it matters -- with his nine goals in the tournament second only to Al Hilal captain Salem Al-Dawsari.
Toney's game is all about putting the ball into the back of the net but he does so with the minimal of fuss. His opposite number at Al Hilal, Aleksandar Mitrović, does a decent job at that too but is perhaps performing at just a tier below, especially given some recent fitness issues.
Credit has to go to Marcos Leonardo, the unheralded 21-year-old who has stepped up in the absence of Neymar and Mitrović. For all his previous game-changing exploits, the former Benfica man was unable to drag Al Hilal over the line coming up against Al Ahli's equally-formidable lineup.
It is easy, with the benefit of hindsight, to suggest Al Hilal's initial gamble to put plenty of their eggs in Neymar's basket backfired.
Up till Tuesday, their style had been coming good -- heading into the tie with a staggering 37 goals, a tournament high, from 11 outings in the ACL Elite on the back of some swashbuckling displays, including a dominant 7-0 rout of Gwangju FC in the quarterfinals just four days earlier.
Still, on the second biggest evening of the campaign, it was substance which prevailed.
Of which Al Ahli have plenty of. A key reason why it is them who are marching on to the biggest night of the ACL Elite.