Riyadh: Issa Al-Hakami
Al-Hilal of Saudi Arabia equaled the Welsh Saints’ record of 27 consecutive victories as the largest series of victories in football, after the former’s victory on Friday over its host Riyadh 3-1 at Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium in the twenty-third round of the Saudi League.
“Al-Zaeem” expanded the difference with its rival, Al-Nasr, to 12 points after “Al-Alami” stumbled by losing to Al-Raed 1-3.
“Blue” raised its score to 65 points and became close to clinching the title in its favor, in light of the large points distance between it and its eternal rival, who is going through a point collapse that lost it five points in the last two matches, and Riyadh remained on its score of 23 points in fifteenth place.
The first half ended without goals after Serbian Mitrovic missed a penalty kick for Al Hilal in the 45th + 8th minute. In the second half, Riyadh scored first in the 52nd minute through Al Hilal defender Ali Al Balihi, who accidentally scored in his team’s goal.
Al Hilal equalized from a penalty kick awarded by the referee in favor of Serbian Mitrovic, so Portuguese Neves took the lead and scored in the 66th minute.
Brazilian Michel increased the score for Al Hilal with a second goal in the 75th minute, before Al Azraq again got a penalty kick, the third in the match, through which Mitrovic scored the third goal in the 90th + 3 minute.
The Riyadh coach and players seemed dissatisfied with the performance of the match referee, as Hillman (the coach) said in the press conference: I believe that the second and third penalty kicks were not correct. Mitrovic himself mentioned to me that his kick was not correct after the match.
Portuguese Jorge Jesus seemed happy with the win and the new number, as he said in the press conference: We knew that we could return to the match even if the opponent scored against us first. The series of victories is a historic number that will be recorded for us, but for us it is the second goal. The first is achieving the league championship, the King’s Cup, and the League. Asian Champions.
The Portuguese technician attributed the absence of some players, such as Savic, to rest in order to prepare for the upcoming matches.
For its part, Al-Tai ended the series of defeats by defeating Al-Hazm 1-0, scored by Ghanaian Mensah in the sixth minute. Thus, the team’s balance became 21 points in 16th place, and Al-Hazm is at the bottom of the list with 15 points.
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