Marcelo Gallardo's
Al Ittihad
suffered a hard blow this Friday when visiting the leader of the Saudi Professional League, on the 22nd. Al Hilal, the comfortable leader of the tournament, won 3-1 and stretched its lead at the top .
The Argentine coach's team seemed to have put the bad results behind them with an unbeaten streak of six games, but the streak came to an end.
The Jeddah-based institution, without Frenchman Karim Benzema (injured), suffered its first defeat of the year against the leader,
Al Hilal
.
The
Muñeco
team had started ahead on the scoreboard due to N' Golo Kanté's goal, but the joy soon faded.
After 38 minutes,
Neymar
's team (he is recovering from a serious injury to one of his ankles) managed to tie the match after a rebound that
Saleh Al Shehri
was able to take advantage of .
Three minutes later, Al Ittihad had a penalty in their favor, but the VAR reversed the sanction.
Already in the second half the dynamics of the match changed:
Al Hilal showed why they are heading for the league title and with two goals in 21 minutes they settled history
.
Firstly, at 13, he made it 2-1 with a goal from
Malcom;
and at 21, he sealed the victory through a personal play by
Saud Abdulhamid
.
مرّ من هنا
...
#yallaRSL pic.twitter.com/J8WM4VOvuI
— دوري روشن السعودي (@SPL) March 1, 2024
This defeat ends the undefeated and great start of the team led by Marcelo Gallardo
, which is in fifth position in the table with 37 units.
For its part,
Al Hilal stretches its advantage with this victory to remain the sole leader of the competition
with 62 points, nine more than its pursuer Al
Nassr
.
Marcelo Gallardo and his team will have revenge
Next Tuesday, March 5, both teams will meet again.
This time,
for the quarterfinals of the Asian Champions
, where the team of Kanté, Benzema and company will seek to take a key step in the continent's top tournament.
The first match will be played again on the Al Hilal court and a week later, the key will be decided at the
King Abdullah Sports City
, the home of Al Ittihad.