JEDDAH: The three points that separate Al-Ittihad and Al-Hilal stood still after both teams along with Abha secured victories in yesterday’s round 13 matches of the Saudi Professional League.
For Hilal the chase — and the suspense — continues. Sooner or later Hilal will get another chance at toppling Ittihad. In the meantime, Ittihad again gets to enjoy its reign at the top of the standings.
Enjoying another fine season, Ittihad found no difficulty dispatching Al-Watani 7-2 in a one-sided match at Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium in Jeddah.
Like Hilal, Ittihad was hoping things to go its way and extend its lead with the Hilal loss. Instead, Hilal kept pace with Ittihad by beating Al-Raid 2-0 in Buraidah.
Ittihad had scary moments when Al-Watani leveled the game 2-2 before the end of the first half.
As it turned out, that was Watani’s final stand as Ittihad slammed home five goals in the second half en route to boosting its tally to 36 points.
Hilal strengthened its position in second place with 33 points while Al-Raid froze in the 10th position with nine points.
Abha secured its first win after 13 matches, against Najran 1-0 in Abha. Abha increased its points to seven and jumped to 11th position. Al-Watani dropped down to the last position on five points.
The main match of the round between Al-Ahli and Shabab ended in favor of Shabab with the help of the referee who awarded Shabab a controversial penalty kick in injury time after the match nearly ended 2-2.
Shabab was first to lead the match by 2-0. Ahli raised the level of its performance and leveled the match. As the match was heading to a draw the referee awarded Shabab a penalty kick after Majrashi faked a fall following a tackle inside the penalty box. Ahli’s protest fell on deaf ears as the referee insisted on the penalty kick. The result put Shabab still five points behind Hilal in third place on 28 points, while Ahli remained sixth on 16 points.
The match between Al-Ittifaq and Al-Hazem was postponed until further notice due to a conflict with Hazem’s participation in a competition outside the Kingdom.
