JEDDAH, 24 November 2004 — Al-Hilal underlined their dominance of the Arab Champions League by beating the visitors Al-Afriqi of Tunisia 3-1 in their Group C match at the Prince Faisal ibn Fahd Stadium in Riyadh last night.
Playing in front of their home crowd, Hilal played very aggressive and could have scored in the 27th minute of the first half through Sami Al-Jaber, had his free-kick from inside the penalty box reached the target, but it was cleverly denied by Afriqi keeper.
Sami Al-Jaber was the architect of Hilal’s victory by showing his soccer skills throughout the game.
In the 40th minute, Sami again made a smart pass inside the penalty box to his teammate Basem Al-Faraj, who wasted no time in putting the ball into the Afriqi’s net.
Muhammad Al-Suleti headed goalward for Afriqi in the 44th minute when they went in search for an equalizer but Hilal’s keeper Hassan Al-Otaibi, nicely saved the move. Fahd Al-Mufarej increased the tally by adding one more in the 48th minute through a header after receiving a nice pass from the corner. Abdullah Al-Jamman scored Hilal’s third in injury time.
Afriqi, who pressed till the end, restored some pride with a goal from Al-Salawi in the 68th minute.
Emerson Hits Treble as Reds Crush Reysol
Urawa Reds underlined their dominance of the second stage of the J-League season by thrashing relegation-threatened Kashiwa Reysol 4-0 away yesterday.
Brazilian striker Emerson fired a hat trick for the Reds to take his tally for the season to a league-best 27 goals.Urawa won the second-stage title at the weekend and play Japanese champions Yokohama F-Marinos in the two-leg J-League final on Dec. 5 and 11. The Reds, coached by former German World Cup winner Guido Buchwald, improved to 34 points from 14 games after overpowering 10-man Reysol.
Injury-troubled Yokohama, who won the first-stage title, lost 2-1 to Albirex Niigata at International Stadium and slipped to sixth with 22 points. At the foot of the table, Cerezo Osaka staved off relegation, at least until the weekend, with a 2-1 victory at home to Shimizu S-Pulse. Cerezo’s city rivals Gamba Osaka won 2-1 at former champions Jubilo Iwata to stay second on 27 points with one match remaining in the second stage.
