JEDDAH, 25 April — On behalf of Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, Prince Sultan, second deputy premier and minister of defense and aviation, awarded the Crown Prince Cup to Al-Ahli which won the cup by beating Al-Ittihad 2-1 in the final at the Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium here yesterday.
Ahli scored the first goal through Ali Abdali in the 21st minute. But Al-Ittihad’s Al-Hassan Al-Yami struck back with equal ferocity when he shot the ball into the Al-Ahli goal in the 46th minute. The decisive goal came at the 87th minute when Khaled Al-Shanif of Al-Ahli converted a penalty kick with meticulous precision.
With the Crown Prince Cup, Al-Ahli won the fourth cup in a row in the current season.
International referee Abdul Rahman Al-Zaid, who controlled the match, issued the red card to Ittihad’s Hamza Idris who will be denied a place in the King Fahd Cup final to be played in a few days between Al-Ittihad and Al-Hilal. Al-Ittihad’s Brazilian Sergio and Osama Al-Mawlid will also be out of the King’s Cup.
The individual failures of the Al-Ittihad players led to their fall while Al-Ahli focused on the offensive from the very start. The standard of play was mediocre.
This win is also a special occasion for Al-Ahli’s new coach Yusuf Anabar who led the team to victory in his first attempt.
