JEDDAH, 3 March 2007 — Al-Hilal and Al-Ittifaq qualified for the Crown Prince Cup football semifinals after defeating Al-Hazem 2-0 and Al-Shabab 1-0 last night.
In Riyadh at King Fahd International Stadium, Hilal were on tenterhooks up to the second extra second time and only heaved a sigh of relief when the veteran
Sami Al-Jaber struck with a pair of goals to guarantee victory.
Playing with nothing to lose and everything to gain against one of the heavyweights of Saudi football, Al-Hazem proved a very tough opponent throughout the match. Al-Hazem forced Hilal to a 0-0 tie in the regulation time. Al-Hazem were dangerous most of the time and outmatched Hilal and threatened to score on many occasions. Yasser Al-Qahtani and Al-Tayeb were not effective in front of a very well organized Al-Hazem defense.
The very experienced Al-Jaber, known as the wolf of the Saudi football, then took matters into his own hands to fire Hilal into the semifinals. Al-Jaber received a nice cross inside the penalty box in the 10th minute of the second extra time and booted in the ball in the left hand side of the goalkeeper who tried to save the ball to no avail.
Fired up by the goal, Hilal pushed forward in search for another goal that came two minutes later from Al-Jaber again and this time he received a back-heel pass from Al-Tayeb inside the penalty box and his shot did not miss and the ball was in the back of the net.
In the second match, Ittifaq eliminated Shabab after winning the match 1-0. Abdul Rahman Al-Qahtani scored the goal. Hilal’s semifinal opponent will be the winner of the Al-Ahli and Al-Faisali tie with Ittifaq going up against either Al-Ittihad or Najran.
