JEDDAH: Al-Ahli gained a psychological boost ahead of its decisive match against Al-Nasr yesterday by beating Al-Watani 2-0 in a round nine match of the Saudi Professional League at Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium.
Ahli will host Riyadh-based Nasr next Friday in the first leg of their final series in the Gulf Clubs Championship.
In scoring its third win in nine matches Ahli moved up to fifth place with 13 points.
Overall, the match failed to produce the old Ahli sparkle as the team was unable to score a goal in the first half and has its highly demanding fans pressing the panic button. The reason is that Nasr is a far stronger team and the fans feel their beloved Ahli needs to raise its level of performance if it is to have any chance of victory.
Ahli’s first goal of the match came in the 75th minute courtesy of Badr Al-Kharashi. The same player gave a nice tricky back heel pass to Ibraheem Hazizi who came face to face with the goalie and found no difficulty directing the ball to the back of the net to the right of the Watani goalie in the first minute of injury time.
Watani remains languishing in 11th place with only five points.
