JEDDAH, 12 March 2004 — Al-Ittihad entered the final of the Crown Prince Cup Soccer event with a 2-1 victory over Al-Nasr in Riyadh yesterday. Ittihad now await the winner of the match between Al-Ahli and Al-Hilal to be played in Riyadh today.
The away victory followed Ittihad’s earlier home verdict of 3-1 last week. Ittihad’s dominance was once again evident this week and Nasr had to bring out their best in Riyadh if they had any hope of advancing.
Nasr took control of the first 15 minutes in a frenetic attempt in gaining an early goal and thus bridging the margin set up by Ittihad prior to the match. Nasr needed to score 2-0 to draw and take the match to extra time or register an outright 3-0 win to stop Ittihad in their stride.
But despite the fast pace and the attacking mode in the early part of the game, it was Ittihad who struck first. Nasr’s dreams were shattered by Chico, the Brazilian international player, who scored for Ittihad in the 18th minute from a set piece. The floater took a different direction to that anticipated by the Nasr keeper after taking a deflection to the left as it hit a Nasr defender in the wall. The ball traveled to the left hand side of the goalie, who tried to regain his footing and direction in vain.
Ittihad then virtually put an end to Nasr’s hopes of advancing to the final in the 34th minute when another Brazilian international Demba struck the second goal for Ittihad.
The goal was a gem as Demba collected a brilliant pass from Al-Zahrani in front of Nasr’s goal, ran in by sidestepping the defenders and had no difficulty in putting the ball into the net.
Nasr’s consolation goal came in the 45th minute of the first half from a penalty kick when Abdulrahman Al-Bishi was brought down inside the penalty box. Busharwan, the Moroccan professional, stepped up to the spot and placed the ball to the left hand side of Mabruk Zayed.
The second half was no different, with Ittihad defending and relying completely on swift counter attacks while Nasr threw everything into the attack in a desperate bid for more goals to keep their hopes. But the goals dried up and Ittihad went ahead on a 5-2 aggregate.
Ahli will face Hilal today to determine the team that would face Ittihad. Ahli who take a 2-1 edge into their away encounter have the upper hand as they can qualify for the final if they hold Hilal to a draw.
A win for Ahli would give them a berth automatically, while Hilal have to win if they hope to spoil what would be a Jeddah derby in the final.
