JEDDAH, 4 April 2008 — Al-Hilal and Al-Shabab play the first of their two home-and-away matches today that could decide their fates in the Saudi Football League. Al-Ittihad, on top with 43 points in the team standings and with only a match on April 13 against Hilal remaining, are idle but whose own ambitions could be affected as well by the results of the Hilal-Shabab tussle.
Four other pending matches take place today in a heavy five-game schedule as the tournament enters the homestretch.
The match is extremely important for Hilal, in which losing is not an option if they are to overtake Ittihad in first place and complete a steal of the title in the prestigious competition.
A defeat and, worse, a Shabab sweep of the matches would knock Hilal out of second place and hand Ittihad the championship crown.
But a sweep by Hilal, on the other hand, gives the Riyadh-based squad 49 points and two options to win the crown: play for a draw or win against Ittihad.
Shabab, on 37 points are in third place and effectively ruled out of the title race.
Hilal enter the match with 43 points. This is a do or die situation as Hilal sacrificed the Prince Faisal ibn Fahd Cup by not fielding key players, like Yaser Al-Qahtani, Omar Al-Ghamdi, Mohammad Al-Shalhoub and Al-Tayeeb, in the final match against Al-Nasr on Wednesday and as a result the team lost the match 2-1.
If Hilal split the matches against Shabab they would be 2 points down to Ittihad, leaving them with a must-win game against Ittihad while at the same time giving Ittihad with the option of either to win or draw to claim the title.
In nonbearing matches today, Nasr host Al-Hazem in Riyadh, Al-Ittifaq entertain Al-Watani in Dammam, Najran welcome Al-Ahli in Najran and Taie receive Qadisia in Hail.
