JEDDAH: Al-Shabab forced Al-Hilal to a 1-1 draw at the Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium in Riyadh in an advanced round 21 of the Saudi Professional League last night. The result did no benefit Hilal, who desperately needed the three points in order to stay on top of the league standings.
Hilal was expecting an Ittifaq win or a draw against Ittihad. Instead Ittihad scored a comfortable 2-0 win at the Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium in Jeddah that enabled them to go to the top of the league table.
Hilal went into the attack right from the start in search for a goal. Their efforts nearly bore fruit when the referee awarded a spot kick when Shabab defender handled the ball inside the penalty box. However, Wilhelmsson made a mess of it and failed to score.
Hilal continued to attack but failed to penetrate the well-organized rival defense despite the fact that a Shabab defender Naif Al-Ghadi was shown the red card in the 37th minute.
The game went on with attacks and counterattacks and pressure mounted on Hilal who was growing desperate as the match progressed. Hilal midfielder, Meriél Radoi, was red carded in the 88th minute. This gave Shabab the opportunity to make inroads into the rival territory. They were rewarded when they scored during injury time when Hussein Muaz received a nice pass inside the penalty box and blasted the ball to the right hand side of the goalie.
Just when everybody thought that the game was over, Hilal did the impossible when Yasser Al-Qahtani got the equalizer just before the hooter following a fine head from inside the penalty box.
Tempers began to rise in the stadium when Shabab club president, Klahed Al-Baltan, was caught by camera in a fistfight with an unknown person. There was another fight on the field when the Shabab Argentinian coach Hector made an attempt to attack the referee.
Shabab stayed in third place of the standings with 31 points while Hilal dropped to the second place with 44 points.
Ittihad defeated Ittifaq 2-0 in Jeddah with Emad Miteb striking twice for Ittihad. Ittihad advanced to the first place with 36 points, increasing the gap with Hilal by two points while Ittifaq dropped to fifth place with 27 points.
Al-Ahli defeated Al-Wehda in Makkah 2-0 with goals from Tayseer Al-Jasim and Hasan Al-Raheb. Ahli advanced to fourth place with 28 points and Wehda stayed in seventh place with 20 points. Al-Nasr secured the game’s three points after defeating Al-Watani 2-1 in Tabuk. Al-Watani remained bottom with nine points while Nasr is sixth with 27 points.
