JEDDAH, 19 January 2008 — Al-Ittihad kept the upper hand in their head-to-head with Al-Ahli this season, winning 1-0 in the Saudi League at Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium here yesterday.
Al-Hilal had hoped for an Ahli gift in the form of either a win or a draw to narrow the gap on Ittihad. Instead, Ittihad put the pressure back on Hilal by collecting the game three points.
In addition to Hilal, Al-Shabab and Al-Nasr are in hot pursuit of league leaders Ittihad.
Ittihad took the initiative from the first minute of the match launching continuous attacks against Ahli, assuming control of the midfield and sealing off support to Malek Muaz, who was tightly marked by Ittihad defenders and not given a chance to maneuver. The Ahli goalie was tested in the 7th minute of the match when Keta nearly scored the first goal from a fine cross in front of the goalie. Muhammad Massad cleared the ball for a corner kick. Ahli hit back in the 19th minute from a fine long distance shot from Fabiano, but was blocked by Al-Nteef. Alves came back in the 22nd minute with a nice shot inside the penalty box and nearly scored an early goal for Ittihad but the ball was nicely blocked.
In the first half there were serious defense lapses for Ahli, especially when Ittihad attacked from the wings.
With dogged push, Ittihad found the only goal of the match in the 35th minute from Keta who received a nice through ball between defenders. Al-Abdali was a tad late clearing the ball giving Keta the perfect opportunity to slip in the ball past the left hand side of Ahli goalie. Ahli’s poor defense was to blame for this goal.
Ittihad assumed total control forcing Ahli to retreat and rely on fast counter attacks. Keta nearly handed Ahli the second goal in the 61st minute from a fine cross that slipped under Yaser Al-Musaileem hands and found its way to Keta who faced an empty goal but hurried the shot and the ball hopped over the bar.
A red card on Fabiano in the 79th minute made matters worse for Ahli. Fabiano was red carded for hitting Ittihad’s goalie with an elbow. Ahli tried with one man down to level the game but all their efforts were met by a strong, well-determined and well-organized enemy defense line.
In Riyadh, Hilal struggled to win against Taie in freezing cold. Taie managed to hold the game at 0-0 until the 87th minute when Yaser Al-Qahtani scored for Hilal. Hilal added a second goal courtesy of Tariq Al-Tayeb in the 92nd minute of the match. While unable to gain ground on Ittihad Hilal brought home three crucial points that strengthened their grip on second place.
In Makkah, Al-Ittifaq turned the tables on Wehda to win 2-1 after being down 1-0 for most of the match. Wehda took the lead in the 44th minute through Ameedo. Saleh Basheer and Rashed Al-Raheem gave Ittifaq the upper hand when they scored in the 86th and 93rd minutes of the match.
After yesterday’s matches, Ittihad stayed top with 37 points, Hilal second with 32 points, Ahli dropped to sixth place with 22 points, Ittifaq advanced to the fifth position with 25 points, Wehda seventh with 19 points and Taie 11th with 7 points.
