JEDDAH: Al-Shabab gave Al-Ittihad one of the worst beatings in a final match it would never forget. Shabab crushed Ittihad 4-0 yesterday in the final of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Cup of Champions football tournament at the King Fahd International Stadium in Riyadh.
The reigning Saudi League champions were made to swallow the bitter pill of a result for 30 years.
Also, history was on Shabab’s side in the season finale. The Riyadh-based club has won six of the seven final maches it played against Ittihad including last night’s one-sided match.
In last year’s final of the same competition Shabab defeated Ittihad 3-1 in Riyadh.
The sides were both eyeing a major domestic championship double but it was Shabab who achieved the feat with last night’s victory. Al-Hilal was the third team to win a major by claiming the Crown Prince Cup title.
Shabab and Ittihad set up the highly anticipated final by beating Hilal and Al-Hazem in the two-legged semifinal series.
But the match turned out to be a disappointment as Ittihad failed to deliver.
Ittihad started the match without the injured Muhammad Nur. Still, Shabab showed it meant business and the team wanted nothing but the cup from the opening whistle.
The team was better organized than Ittihad. Shabab nearly took the lead in the fourth minute of the match when Shabab was awarded a penalty kick. Hamad Al-Muntasheri tackled Kamatcho inside the penalty box but Naser Al-Shamrani’s penalty shot sailed over the top bar.
It didn’t take long for Shabab to find the mark and Al-Shamrani himself scored the first goal in the 10th minute when he received a nice pass inside the penalty box from Faisal Shuhail and placed the ball in the back of the net.
The second goal came in the 19th minute when Al-Shamrani again took advantage of Ittihad’s poor defense line and managed to blast the ball to the right of goalkeeper Mabrouk Zaid.
Ittihad continued to play indifferent football and Shabab players constantly outmatched their rivals and took total control of the midfield.
Ittihad made its first dangerous attempt in the 25th minute courtesy of Sultan Al-Numari whose header was nicely blocked by Shabab goalie Waleed Abdullah, who was again in the right place at the right time when Manaf Abu Shugair launched another Ittihad sally.
Ittihad suffered a blow when Zaid was red carded in the 37th minute for tackling Al-Saaran.
With the goalkeeper out, Ittihad’s coach was left with no choice but to take out Al-Numari to introduce Tayseer Al-Nteef as a goalkeeper.
And another blow for Ittihad was when Saleh Al-Sagri was red carded for a hard tackle on Al-Saaran. The first half ended 2-0 in favor of Shabab.
In the 55th minute, the Ittihad coach, in a desperate move, fielded the ailing Nur for the ineffective Moroccan striker Hisham Busharwan.
Nur could not do much and Shabab continued to dominate the match with two more goals sealing the well-deserved triumph.
Ittihad was forced to be on the defensive and relied on fast counter attacks. The third goal for Shabab came in the 71st minute through Hasan Muaz who took a ball inside the penalty box and blasted it to the left of the goalkeeper.
After the third goal, Ittihad fans headed for the exit with tears in their eyes as their title hopes ended in a shameful result they never imagined in their wildest dreams.
Faisal Al-Sultan added to the Shabab goalfest.
In the dying moments of the match, Al-Sultan received a fine pass that spliced the defenders to fire home the fourth goal of the match.
The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah awarded Shabab with the trophy and the gold medals while Ittihad took the silver medals.
Hilal took third place after beating Al-Hazem on penalty kicks on Thursday.
