JEDDAH: The Riyadh derby in the Custodian of The Two Holy Mosques Cup of Champions between Al-Hilal and Al-Nasr at King Fahd International Stadium ended 1-1 yesterday.
Hilal grabbed a late equalizer courtesy of Christian Wilhemsson in the first leg match and set the stage for an intriguing showdown between the city rivals in the return bout on April 26.
Nasr was first to score in the 22nd minute through Rayan Belal, who outfoxed a Hilal defender before placing the ball to the left of the goalkeeper.
Nasr looked headed for victory until Wilhelmsson came along in the 89th minute. He scored when he collected a deflected free kick by Al-Shalhoub and blasted the ball in the back of the net.
Al-Ittihad escaped with a late goal to secure a 1-0 win against Al-Ittifaq in the fist leg match at Prince Muhammad bin Fahd Stadium in Dammam.
Ittifaq nearly scored on more than one occasion were it not for the superb job of Ittihad goalkeeper Tayseer Al-Jasim.
Ittihad took advantage of an Ittifaq player who was red carded in the 60th minute to take control of the match.
The only goal of the match came from Talal Al-Meshal in the 89th minute.
Ittihad will host Ittifaq in Jeddah for the return leg on April 26.
Al-Shabab crushed Wehda 5-1 in Makkah.
The lopsided result means Shabab has the two-leg series in the bag. It takes a four-goal lead when it hosts Wehda in Riyadh on April 25.
Al-Hazem welcomes Ahli in Al-Rass today to open their series in the eightteam season-ending tournament.
