Riyadh derby

The last round of the Saudi league was full of excitement but the most important match was the Riyadh derby, where Al-Nasr met Al-Hilal at the King Fahad International Stadium.
This match was tough for both teams. Hilal lost most of its power this season, meeting a Nasr side that has become much better.
Nasr’s supporters gave their team an incredible pressure, believing that if they would not beat Hilal now in this situation, they would probably not ever.
But Hilal began the match stronger than its performance in the last four rounds. Not to mention, with the best lineup as well.
Hilal pulled through fearlessly, ending the match 3-1 in its favor. Hilal dominated especially during the second half. The coach made up for the three points loss against Ittifaq with a good lineup he created this time.
But the biggest credit went to Wesley Lopes, the striker the team has been needing since 2002. Hilal better be keeping this one. Also worth mentioning is the new local player, Yasser Alshahrani.
Good to know that the coach has learned his lesson during the Ittifaq match when he kept this gifted player off the field.
As for Nasr, I always say they still need a lot of work, time and patience. Losing to Hilal now should not be taken as a failure. They are improving, and that is a good thing. The management and supporters should not be too hard on them.
They should be given credit for developing into a better team. With enough motivation, I see this team developing into a very good one worthy of the respect from opponents in the future.
Hilal, on the other hand, should not view the win as a reason for complacency and overconfidence. Its recent victory must only be a reminder that with good tactic and focus, they can do it!
I hope that this win be a motivation for the long awaited match against Korea’s Ulasan in the Asian Championship League in two weeks.
This match is Hilal’s last hurrah for this season, losing even this will leave them with nothing.
Good luck with that!

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