JEDDAH: The Saudi Professional League round 12 produced no surprises with Al-Ittihad and Al-Hilal yesterday predictably winning their matches to keep the three points gap between them at the top of the table.
Ittihad defeated Al-Raid 2-0 in Buraidah but not after having to endure tense moments with a slim 1-0 lead for the better part of the match.
The match was nearly leveled in the second half when Al-Raid was awarded a penalty kick but Mabrouk Zayed kept Ittihad’s net clean before Al-Subyani scored the second goal for Ittihad in the injury time.
The win increased Ittihad’s tally in first place to 33 points, while Raid dropped down to 10th place on 9 points.
Hilal kept pace of the league leader, crushing Abha 4-1 in Riyadh and taking its tally to 30 points.
Shabab defeated Najran in Najran 2-0 and strengthened its grip on third place with 25 points, five adrift of Hilal.
Al-Hazem defeated Wehda 3-1 in a reversal of sorts.
This result coupled by its 2-0 triumph over Al-Nasr in their Gulf Clubs final rematch at Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium in Jeddah had Al-Ahli moving up a notch in the standings.
With the defeat Wehda slid to seventh place on 15 points. Al-Hazem is ninth with 11 points.
Al-Ittifaq downed Al-Watani in Tabuk 1-0 to stay in the hunt with 20 points, good for fourth position as it benefited from the Nasr defeat by Ahli.
Al-Watani remained 11th with mere five points.
Ahli continued to show its mastery of the Nasr side a week after beating the Riyadh-based club for the Gulf Clubs Championship crown on the aggregate score of 3-0.
Goals from Hasan Al-Raheb in the 24th minute and Muhammad Masaad in the 44th minute gave Ahli victory that hopefully would revive its campaign in the last half of the competition. Ahli jumped to sixth position on 16 points. Nasr slipped to fifth place on 18 points.
