JEDDAH: Al-Ittihad crashed to their first defeat to arch city rivals Al-Ahli 2-1 in the advanced round 19 of the Saudi Professional League match last night.
The win by Ahli enabled Al-Hilal to move at the top of the table, who beat Al-Nasr 2-0 to win the Riyadh derby on Friday and take their points tally to 40.
Backed by their fans who turned up in large numbers for both teams, Ahli meant business right from the start while Ittihad were confident of victory which would enable them to increase the point difference by three at the top.
It was a night to remember for star strikers Hasan Al-Raheb and Malek Muaz who scored the goals for Ahli.
Ahli had muffed a penalty earlier when Malek Muaz’s effort was saved by Ittihad goalkeeper.
Muaz was determined to make amends for the penalty miss and was successful in giving his side the lead four minutes before the breather.
Ittihad was quick to equalize in the 54th minute through Sultan Al-Numari from a fine shot from inside the penalty box.
Ittihad piled on the pressure on Ahli in search for the winner but suffered a big blow when their defender Reda Tukar was shown the red card in the 62nd minute for hard tackle on a rival player.
This gave Ahli more room to push forward and Ittihad was forced to substitute a striker with a defender for cover.
But the continuous pressure by Ahli was paid off in the 83rd minute when Al-Raheb got the match winner following a header. Ittihad tried hard for the equalizer but ran out of time.
Ittihad for the first time this season dropped to second place and surrendered the top spot to Hilal. In the other match, Ittifaq defeated Wehda 4-0 in Dammam.
