In the decisive Clasico, the hopes of victory and Ronaldo hang at the feet of Al-Hilal players
In the decisive Clasico, the hopes of victory and Ronaldo hang at the feet of Al-Hilal players
In the decisive Clasico, the hopes of victory and Ronaldo hang at the feet of Al-Hilal players
Al-Hilal, the defending champion in the past three seasons, stands between Al-Ittihad and its crawl towards the Roshen League title when they face off on Tuesday at the ground of the first at the top of the 27th stage, in which victory and its Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo chant the leader’s stumbling in order to keep the dream of crowning the title alive.
And 4 stages before the end of the season, Al-Ittihad leads the standings with 62 points, five points behind Al-Nassr Al-Thani, who stumbled in his career recently, with only one victory in the last 4 matches in the league.
Al-Ittihad, which has been searching for a first title in the league since 2009, hopes to overcome the obstacle of its host Al-Hilal at Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium in Riyadh.
This season, Al-Ittihad lost only two matches in the league, and three matches in all local competitions, two of which were against Al-Hilal, who won the first leg of the league, and in the semi-finals of the King’s Cup, with a score of 1-0.
Al-Hilal seeks to disrupt its guest and inflict the third loss in the third confrontation between them, thus providing a service to Ronaldo and Al-Nasr, while Al-Ittihad will try to rehabilitate it and seize three points, which may be the most expensive this season.
Al-Hilal, crowned with the King’s Cup title on Friday, ranks fourth with 49 points, collected from 25 matches, and has a postponed match against Damak.
Despite Al-Hilal’s distance from the competition for the league title and its previous exit from the Super Cup and the loss of its title in the AFC Champions League by losing the final a few days ago against Urawa Red Diamonds of Japan, it saved its domestic season with the King’s Cup title at the expense of Al-Wehda with a penalty shootout.
Al-Hilal is missing its Korean defender Jang Hyun and Colombian Gustavo Cuellar due to the accumulation of cards and Salman Al-Faraj due to injury, but it will regain its star Salem Al-Dosari, to join the rest of the team’s stars such as goalkeeper Abdullah Al-Mayouf, who scored the last penalty shoot-out in the cup final, Saud Abdul-Hamid, Yasser Al-Shahrani, Muhammad Kno, Peruvian Andy Carrillo and Mali. Musa Marega, the Brazilian Michael Delgado and the Nigerian Odion Ighalo.
On the other hand, and after stumbling in a loss against Al-Taawoun, Al-Ittihad returned strongly against Abha and beat it by a clean four, and succeeded in widening the difference to five points with Al-Nasr, the runner-up, taking advantage of its stumbling in a draw against Al-Khaleej.
With the exception of the absence of Muhannad Al-Shanqeeti for injury and Zakaria Hawsawi for suspension, Al-Ittihad enters the match in full ranks, with the presence of Brazilian goalkeeper Marcelo Grohe and his compatriots Bruno Henrique, Igor Cornado, Romarinho, the Egyptian Ahmed Hegazy and his compatriot Tariq Hamed, the Moroccan Abdul Razzaq Hamdallah, Madallah Al-Olayan and Ahmed Sharahili.
The matches of Al-Hilal, Al-Ittihad, Al-Ta’i and Al-Nasr will be held at the same time on Tuesday, and Al-Nasr will hope to achieve what is required of it in return for any failure of Al-Ittihad to maintain its hopes of winning the league title for the first time since 2019, thus saving its season and the season of its star Ronaldo, who arrived in early 2023 with a fictional deal and the team’s exit from all competitions this year. .
Al-Nasr is alone in second place with 57 points, four points ahead of the third youth, who will play his postponed match from stage 26 with Al-Ettifaq on Sunday. Al-Khamis plays Al-Shabab with Al-Wahda, and Abha with Al-Ettifaq.