JEDDAH, 10 May 2005 — Al-Ittihad secured an important win yesterday against Al-Hilal at Prince Faisal ibn Fahd Stadium in Riyadh during the semifinal first leg in the Arab Champions League.
After their 1-0 victory, Ittihad now take a one-goal advantage when they host Hilal in the second leg of the home-and-away series on May 19. Ittihad stepped onto the field determined to erase the embarrassing loss against Hilal in Crown Prince Cup competition when Ittihad lost the home match 1-0 and drew in the away 1-1. True to form, Ittihad delivered what was promised to their fans putting an end to Hilal’s successes in big matches between the two teams.
The only goal of the match came in the 60th minute from a nice cross by Manaf Abu Shgeer to Abdullah Al-Waked who dished off a nice header in the back of the net. The fired-up Ittihad nearly scored again 10 minutes later when Hamza Idrees received a nice pass inside the penalty box but then lost control of the ball to a host of Hilal defenders.
Ittihad were in better shape throughout the match dictating the pace and playing aggressively.
In the 19th minute, Al-Waked came very close to drawing first blood from a free kick. His nice shot hit the high bar testing the Hilal goalie. Hilal surrendered control of the match and relied on launching fast counter attacks by Ahmad Al-Suwaileh and De Silva.
