JEDDAH: Lowly Najran handed Al-Hilal a shock 2-1 defeat in one of six third round matches yesterday in the Saudi Professional League.

Najran’s home victory was a big favor for Al-Ittihad and music to the ears of the Jeddah-based club’s fans though Ittihad did its part, finding no difficulty crushing Al-Hazem 3-1 at Prince Abdudllah Al-Faisal Stadium in Jeddah.

In Najran, Hilal was first to score when its star midfielder Muhammad Al-Shalhoub found the net in the third minute. Striker Al-Hassan Al-Yami hit the equalizer for Najran in the 20th minute, and the hosts managed to put Hilal on the defensive for most of the second half.

Saleh Al-Duwais conjured up a 90th minute goal that turned a drawish match into a big win for Najran which jumped to sixth position with four points in the team standings.

Hilal was favored to hurdle its light assignment and challenge Ittihad for the early in the competition. Instead, Hilal lost three points and dropped to third place on 6 points. Hisham Busharwan scored two goals for Ittihad — in the 8th and 85th minutes — while Sultan Al-Namri booted one in the 56th minute. With the win, Ittihad kept the top spot with 9 points in three matches.

In a contest of tailenders, Al-Raid defeated Al-Watani 3-2 in Buraidah. Raid moved up to ninth place with 3 points while the winless Al-Watani remained at the bottom of the standings.

In Abha, Abha held Al-Ahli to a goalless draw.

Ahli had many scoring opportunities but all its efforts were met by a well organized Abha defense.

Al-Shabab took the Makkah-based Wehda in a breeze 4-2 in Riyadh as it jumped to fourth position with 6 points while Wehda dropped to eighth place with 3 points.

The strongest match of the third round pitting Al-Nasr against Al-Ittifaq ended in a 1-1 draw. The match was interrupted by debris-throwing incident by fans on many occasions forcing the referee to add 12 minutes of injury time and dragging the match to a total playing time of 100 minutes.

Ittifaq drew first blood in the 26th minute through an own goal by a Nasr defender. Nasr equalized in the match’s final minute through striker Saad Al-Harthi.