JEDDAH: Al-Hazem advanced to the semifinal of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Cup of Champions after a 2-2 draw with Al-Ahli in the second leg match yesterday at Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium in Jeddah here.
The first leg match ended 1-1 in Al-Rass. Al-Hazem advanced because the team scored two goals in Jeddah and Ahli scored only one goal in Al-Rass.
Ahli was awarded a penalty kick in the 9th minute of the match but Hasan Al-Raheb missed the spot kick.
Al-Raheb drew first blood for Ahli in the 27th minute from a strong shot from outside of the penalty box that was deflected off a defender and went in to the left of the goalkeeper. Former Ahli striker Waleed Al-Jizani leveled the game in the 34th minute from a nice shot inside the penalty box. Ahli took the lead again in the 38th minute through Muhammas Massad’s shot that went to the right of the goalkeeper. Al-Hazem was placed in a hard situation when one of its players was red carded after receiving two yellow cards.
This did not discourage Al-Hazem and instead gave the squad extra power. Al-Hazem was in its best performance and managed to embarrass Ahli in front of their home crowd. Al-Jizani scored another Hazem equalizer in the 60th minute from a nice solo act inside the penalty box .
With the score tied at 2-2 Ahli had no choice but to play aggressive on offense because the result would kick Ahli out of the competition.
Al-Hazem defended well and managed to keep the result until the final whistle.
Hazem plays the winner of the mach between Al-Ittihad and Al-Ittifaq next Sunday.
Ahli thus ended its football season with the Gulf Cup victory the only saving grace in an otherwise poor performance all season long.
