The “Kingdom Arena” stadium in the capital, Riyadh, will be a new stage for a fierce confrontation between Al Hilal and its guest, Al Ittihad Jeddah, on Friday, at the top of the matches of the 22nd round of the Saudi Roshan League.
Al-Hilal leads the competition with 59 points, while Al-Ittihad Jeddah ranks fifth with 37 points.
Friday’s confrontation will be the first episode of a series of confrontations that will bring the two teams together in less than two weeks, as they will also meet in the AFC Champions League quarter-finals on March 5 and 12.
Al-Hilal enters the match after becoming the record holder in the number of consecutive victories in the competition (14) after breaking the record of its traditional rival, Al-Nasr, after its last victory over Al-Ettifaq. It has also not known a loss in the league yet, raising its record to 31 matches without a loss during the current season.
Al-Hilal, the team with the highest score, will enter the confrontation without its top scorer, Serbian Alexander Mitrovic, who scored 19 goals, 3 goals behind leader Cristiano Ronaldo, after he received a yellow card against Al-Ettifaq.
Mitrovic was the hero of the exciting first leg after scoring 3 hat-trick goals to lead Al Hilal to victory over Al-Ittihad 4-3 early last September.
On the other hand, Al-Ittihad Jeddah, the champion of the competition, is not experiencing its best condition during the season, even though it achieved 3 consecutive victories, the hero of which was its Moroccan striker Abdel-Razzaq Hamdallah, who led it to a difficult and late victory over Al-Wahda, raising its score to 15 goals in the scorers’ race.
French star Karim Benzema is suffering from a goal drought and bad luck, as he did not score in the last 5 matches he played, and his last league goal dates back to last November in his team’s 4-2 win over Al Khaleej.
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