JEDDAH: All roads lead to Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium in
Riyadh Wednesday when host Al-Hilal and Jeddah-based Al-Ahli face off in a
potentially explosive match in the Crown Prince Cup quarterfinal.
Hilal reached the round of eight after defeating Najran 4-0
while Ahli defeated Hajr 4-2 on penalty kicks.
Hilal, the defending champion, defeated Ahli 2-1 in the
final last year. Hilal is favored to prevail over Ahli and advance to the
semifinal considering the overall poor performance of Ahli club this season.
Ahli has bowed of title contention in the Saudi league and
is under heavy pressure from its army of fans to redeem itself in this
competition. Still, Ahli enters the match with great optimism given the
positive results the team achieved in the last league matches. Ahli can also
take advantage of the absence of key players at Hilal. Ahli coach Milovan
Rajevac said Hilal is an attacking team but he does not intend to play a
defensive game but rather unleash Ahli’s own offense which will be built around
a very strong attacking line of Marcinho, Wanderson, Malek Muaz and Victor
Simoes.
Despite that Ahli fans are not optimistic about winning
against Hilal following the team’s performance against Hajr in the Crown Prince
Cup and against Najran in the Saudi league.
Hilal coach Gabriel Calderon is facing deep trouble
especially with the absence of star midfielder Meriél Radoi, who was suspended
for five games due to his bad behavior against Wehda club in a league match on
Saturday, which ended 2-1 to Hilal. The coach also stands to lose the services
of the injured star striker Yasser Al-Qahtani. This leaves him having to rely
on Khaled Aziz and the Egyptian striker Ahmad Ali.
Al-Raid
faces Wehda in the second quarterfinal match. Al-Raid qualified after defeating
Al-Shabab 3-2 while Wehda went through after beating Al-Faisaly 4-2 on penalty
kicks.
