On Monday evening, fans of the ball are looking towards the UAE capital Abu Dhabi, where rivals Al-Hilal and Al-Nasr clash again in a mass derby in the semi-finals of the Saudi Diriyah Super Cup, as the Federation meets Unity at the other end of the tournament.
The tournament was scheduled to take place in February, but the change in the dates of the advanced roles calendar from the Asian Champions League contributed to its delay until this date from the current season calendar, to be announced in Abu Dhabi after signing a sponsorship contract with the Department of Culture and Tourism in the UAE capital.
The final will be held on Thursday at the Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi.
الليلة.. #الهلال و #النصر.. ديربي منتظر في أبوظبي 🏆⏳
🕥 10:30 مساءً
🎙 فهد العتيبي – حاتم بطيشة
من سيتأهل الى النهائي؟#SSC | #كأس_الدرعية_للسوبر_السعودي 🇸🇦 pic.twitter.com/cS98OgkcZJ— SSC (@ssc_sports) April 8, 2024
Al-Hilal, who participated in this tournament as the title holder of the Copa del Rey, enters the match with great ambitions to continue his winning journey and maintain records, currently reaching 32 victories in a row, and seeks to avoid breaking that number against traditional rivals victory in the event of the latter’s victory.
The Portuguese-led crescent entered Jesus after successive successes as he approached the Saudi Professional League title, in addition to qualifying for the semi-finals of the Asian Champions League, as well as the Copa del Rey, bringing him close to the harvest stage he aspires to, as well as the Super League title he lost last season. The capital blue recognizes the importance of meeting against the traditional rivals Al-Nasr even as his coach Jesus stated that they have priorities in the order of tournaments, speaking about the pressure of recent games and his fear of injuries to his players.
The crescent misses the services of its Serb star Mitrovic, the team’s top scorer, and its most prominent attacker, This is after the strong muscle injury he suffered, and you will miss the highlights of the season, But the team has many tools even in terms of the ability to register and shook the net, such as Brazil’s Malcolm, Serbia’s Savic, Salim al-Dosari and Saleh al-Shahri, who substituted on the crescent attack list, scoring two successive goals against the Gulf and the groove.
Al-Nasr, whose coach Luis Castro has announced that he will pursue the Super Cup and Copa del Rey tournaments, is looking to register a victory at the expense of traditional rivals Al-Hilal, especially since the latter won the last two matches combined in the league and the Riyadh Season Cup, in return for a lone victory in the King Salman Cup Arab final early in the current season.
Al-Nasr began a perfect journey to return to his distinguished technical levels and his scoring momentum, as well as a distinctive appearance defensively, after a difficult time he lived, knocked him out of the Asian Champions League, and before that he made great strides away from contending for the Saudi Professional League title 12 points ahead of leader Al-Hilal.
Al-Nasr is armed with the services of his most prominent star Cristiano Ronaldo, who has shown exemplary goalscoring success in recent games, scoring twice in a row “hat-trick”, the first against Al-Tai, before repeating it against Abha, but in the last match against you he was on the bench, and participated as a substitute player with the aim of resting him.
Ronaldo’s neighbourhood relies on victory over Sadio Mane, Portuguese Otavio and Croatian Marcelo Brozovic, where the task will be to double in front of the victory midfield and his defence, to stand in front of the crescent, which has considerable attacking power even with the absence of its Serb star Mitrovic. At Al Nahyan Stadium, the champions of the last edition of the Super Cup will host their unity counterpart in the derby called “Derby Zaman.” The federation seeks to defend its title after losing the chance to achieve the league championship it won last season.
In this season, the Federation is in fourth place so far, with the leader Crescent reaching 30 points.
Under the leadership of Argentine coach Marcelo Gallardo, the Federation showed different technical distinction despite the significant absence of one game after another, but seeks to place its technical weight in this match in the hope of reaching the final, defending its title last season, especially in the event of the team’s ACL exit, as well as moving away from the league race.
The disparity in the levels of the Federation, the absence of a number of players and the lack of matches have adversely affected the performance of high-profile stars, such as France’s Karim Benzema, and his compatriot N ‘Golo Kante, a duo who met at the Federation and did not appear in parallel to the great ambitions that accompanied his presence during the summer transfer window.
The ISU team has moments that are not ideal at the level of technical performance before achieving four points in the last two games that have given it relative reassurance about the relegation struggle, but the team led by Greece’s Dunes shows very wobbly levels from game to game.
Dones, the coach of the team, who almost abandoned escorting his team, objecting to the current situation of the club, said at the press conference that followed the Ahli match in the Saudi Professional League and was the first to leave the team.
The unit is trying to reach the Super Cup final and achieve the tournament title for the first time in its history. Last season, the team reached the Copa del Rey final, but lost the game to Al-Hilal by way of penalties. It is now looking forward to not letting the opportunity go, and to achieve a tournament after many years of absence.
