Abdullah Al-Zouri’s late strike saved Sami Al-Jaber side the blushes as Al-Hilal struggled to get past tenth-placed Al-Ouroobah 3-2 on their home turf in Al-Jouf during the 14 round of the Saudi Premier League on Friday.

A draw would have enabled leaders Al-Nassr to extend their lead at the top. However, it was not to be as Hilal are at the second spot with 32 points while Nassr have 36.

Al-Ouroobah were sitting pretty with a 2-0 lead till midway during the second session through goals scored by Mishari Al-Enizi and Ayed Al-Joufi in the 16th and 50th minutes respectively.

However, two quick goals by Hilal’s Nasser Al-Shumrani changed the course of the match.

In the other matches, Al-Taawon’s Adnan Fallatah netted the match winner in the 75 minute against title-holder Al-Fatah in Qassim while Al-Shulah drew goalless with Al-Nahdha.

On Thursday night, Al-Nassr maintained the top spot after they got the better of eighth-placed Najran at the latter’s home in Najran 3-2. Abdu Otaif, Brazilian substitute Elton and Ibrahim Ghaleb were the goal getters. Daniel Carreno’s side controlled most of the game while Najran got their goals through counter attacks.

Jeddah’s Al-Ahli drew 1-1 at his home against Al-Faisali. The result did not reflect their ambition in their bid for the title or at least the top. Al-Ahli’s bad performance combined with bad luck and successful Al-Faisali’s Rayyan Bilal’s Jordanian Khalil Atiya’s counter attacks failed to secure a win and hardly scored the equalizer by captain Tayseer Al-Jasem through a penalty, despite having the lion’s share of the exchanges. Al-Ahli has 21 points and is at the fourth place while Al-Faisali is in the 12th. Qassim’s 11th-placed Al Raed stopped Al-Ittifaq’s winning run and distanced themselves from the last two after defeating the latter at home 1-0 through attacker Meshal Al-Enizi strike six minutes before time. Al-Ittifaq’s attacker Hamad Al-Hamad missed a penalty minutes just after the change of ends. Al Raed increased their tally to16 points After Friday’s matches, Al-Taawon scraped past Al-Fatah by a solitary goal and climbed to the fourth position with 22 points. Al-Fatah are in the 10th spot with 14 points.

Al-Shulah is at 13th place with 11 points and Al-Nahdha at the bottom with six points.