The al-hilal overturned a clean goal to a 3-1 victory over Riyadh for the 23rd round of the Saudi League competition, moving away at the top of the standings and deepening the gap to 12 points from the second victory.
The “leader” players dominated the first half, long and wide, in front of a contender that had only defended in the backcountry, and Serbia’s Aleksandar Mitrovic succeeded in scoring the leader’s goal at the 11th minute, which the referee overturned after seeing the “VAR” screen and ascertained an offside position.
The blue attacking stretch of the hosts’ goal continued, with nothing changing from the outcome of the game, before there were chances to score in the 45 + 8 minute from the spot, but Mitrovic refused the gift and missed the kick, ending the first half with a scoreless draw.
The start of the second half came poorly on Al-Hilal, after his defender Ali Al-Balehi scored an own goal by mistake at the 52nd minute as he tried to distract the Brazilian Andre Gray, giving Riyadh the lead.
The team’s crescendo response was not long overdue, with substitute Ruben Neves succeeding in adjusting the cuff a few minutes after entering in place of Mohamed Knaugh, translating a penalty into a goal in the 67th minute, before Brazilian Michel scored the second with a header at the 75th minute by making Neves.
Mitrovic corrected his foul in the 90 + 3 minute and scored his team’s third goal from the penalty spot, taking his tally to 20 goals signed behind top scorer Cristiano Ronaldo with 22 goals.
بثلاثية في شباك الرياض..
🥇 #الهلال يوسع الفارق مع أقرب منافسيه إلى 12 نقطة✅📺 شاهد أهداف المباراة ⤵️#دوري_روشن_السعودي #الرياض_الهلال | #SSC pic.twitter.com/q91ZoW1Jaq
— SSC (@ssc_sports) March 8, 2024
With this victory, Al-Hilal raised his balance to 65 points at the top of the Roshen League standings, while Riyadh’s balance froze at 23 points in 15th place, two points ahead of Al-Tai, the first to be threatened by relegation.
Al-Hilal Coach Wins Best Award in February
Before kickoff, al-hilal coach Georgie Jesus was crowned best coach in February, presented by Rosen Group, after achieving 4 consecutive wins in the Saudi League, thereby winning this title for the fourth time in a row, and confirming his superiority over his rivals.
In the Riyadh match Jesus deliberately made some changes to the starting XI by resting some stars, such as Ruben Neves and Sergej Milinkovic Savic, in anticipation of the Clasico clash against the Etihad in the second leg of next Tuesday’s ACL quarter-final.
