2023-11-09 23:10:31
Saudi League: The brilliant Al-Hilal to defend its lead against the motivated Al-Taawoun
The Al Hilal team seeks to complete its ideal journey in the Saudi Professional League, before entering the third pause this season, when it faces a difficult test against Al-Taawoun in the 13th round of the tournament.
The Capital Blue returned with two valuable victories away from home last week, against Al-Fateh in the league, and against Mumbai City in India in the AFC Champions League, to continue in ideal morale, even if it showed a lower and uneven performance than its previous confrontations.
Al-Hilal is alone at the top of the standings with 32 points, while its traditional rival, Al-Nasr, is chasing it by four points, and a fierce competitive confrontation awaits them after returning from a break at the summit on December 1st, which makes the two rivals tasked with not faltering before the anticipated match.
Al-Hilal fears that Al-Taawoun will be far from achieving victory since three rounds, in which it tied and fell from runner-up to third place by 25 points before the start of this round, especially since Al-Taawoun will work to create a strong reaction to rise quickly and avoid being separated from the leading teams.
The leaders of the standings enter their match against Al-Taawoun amid a number of absences that may confuse the team’s harmony, as Serbian Savic is away from the match due to injury, and he is joined by Portuguese Ruben Neves, who is absent due to the accumulation of cards, as well as Ali Al-Bulaihi for the same reason.
The Portuguese Jorge Jesus, coach of the Al Hilal team, will work to put Hassan Timbukti next to Khalidou Koulibaly to compensate for the absence of “Al-Bulayhi”, which is what he did against the Indian Mumbai City FC, while the problem will appear to be greater in the focal point, where Salman Al-Faraj will be absent due to lack of complete readiness.
It is expected that “Jesus” will include Muhammad Kannou alongside one of the duo, Nasser Al-Dosari or Abdul-Ilah Al-Maliki, who seems to be closer to starting due to his defensive characteristics, which appear to be greater.
On the offensive side, Al Hilal does not seem to be experiencing a difficult situation, although some players have declined in their levels, and even with the absence of Savic, who supports up front, the presence of Salem Al Dossari, Mitrovic, Michael, and Malcolm gives the Capital Blue various attacking options.
As for Al-Taawoun, whose Brazilian coach Chamusca is trying to restore the team to a state of balance and recover from successive setbacks, it will face a confrontation that will be difficult even with Al-Hilal’s absence.
Al-Taawoun enters the match looking for a positive result after drawing a draw in the last three matches, and the attacking power that it showed in the matches that preceded that has declined, as it scored only two goals and missed scoring in its last match against Damac, which ended in a goalless draw.
Al-Aboud returns after a forced absence during Al-Ittihad’s recent training sessions (Al-Ittihad Club)
“Sukari Al-Qassim,” as his supporters call him, has many strong attacking options that will be on the mission of visiting the Moroccan goalkeeper, Yassine Bounou, Al Hilal’s goalkeeper, and these names are led by Musa Barrow, Joao Pedro, and Alvaro Medran.
In the city of Jeddah, Al-Ittihad is preparing for the beginning of the phase that follows the period of the Portuguese Nuno Santo, the coach of the team who was dismissed, when the team, which has increased in performance and results, receives “Abha” in a confrontation that is expected to witness a large crowd in support of the team.
The holder of the title of the last edition of the league fell to sixth place before the start of the round’s competitions, and its score froze at 21 points following its recent loss to Al-Shabab, which was not the first stumble for the team that did not taste victory in the league with the last five matches, drawing in three and losing two matches.
The decision to dismiss coach Santo will give a morale boost to the team, its players and the fans, despite the absence of a new coach; The task was temporarily assigned to national coach Hassan Khalifa until a new coach is announced, and Khalifa is one of the names present on the scene due to his presence on the technical staff as an assistant coach.
Abdul Rahman Al-Aboud, the player excluded from training since the end of last season by decision of Santo, returned and participated in his team’s group training, but the decision to participate in the match will depend on his physical readiness and the decision of coach Hassan Khalifa regarding that.
The task will be difficult for the patriot Hassan Khalifa, who will work to create a morale boost for the players in order to restore the tone of victories and return again to the lead in the rankings after the team’s significant decline, despite the fact that he has bright and big names such as the Frenchman Karim Benzema and his compatriot N’Golo Kante and the rest of the names present since last season.
As for the Abha team, which began to change its performance and results since Tunisian Youssef Al-Mannai took over the coaching job, it succeeded in achieving two victories that contributed to the team’s advancement to twelfth place before the start of this round with 13 points.
In addition to Abha’s victory in the league against Al-Shabab and Al-Akhdood, Abha succeeded in securing a qualification ticket to the King’s Cup quarter-finals at the expense of Al-Ahly, by winning 2-1, even though it completed the match with a numerical deficiency after players from the team were expelled.
The team coming from the south realizes the difficulty of its mission, but the team is in an ideal state under the leadership of Al-Mannai, and aspires to come out with a positive result that enhances its progress in the rankings.
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