NEOM regained its winning tone in the Saudi Professional League, with its convincing victory over Abha 2-0 in the confrontation that brought them together in the 11th round of the tournament.
In the past three rounds, NEOM tied with Al-Hazm, and lost to Al-Ettifaq and Al-Nasr respectively, but it succeeded in regaining its ambitions to compete for an advanced position among the seniors this season.
Algerian Saeed Benrahma scored the goal for NEOM in the 15th minute, from a pass from Frenchman Alexandre Lacazette, the team's striker, who himself scored the second goal in the 50th minute, and also from Benrahma's pass.
NEOM raised its score with this victory to 19 points in sixth place, ending the series of negative results that began with a draw with Al-Hazm, then a loss from Al-Ettifaq and finally from Al-Nasr, the defending champion. As for the newly promoted Abha, they are still suffering in terms of results, and are in last place with only two points.
No Qudsawi player will be able to rest before resuming training, after the hectic confrontation with Al Hilal in the Saudi Professional League, as the team awaits a continental mission of great importance when it hosts Al Sadd of Qatar, on Monday, in the third round of the elite AFC Champions League tournament. Irish coach Rodriguez said: “We do not have time to be sad after the loss. Rather, we must return to work quickly, and not rely on the past loss.”
The Irish coach was keen to offer words of praise and appreciation to his players despite the pain of loss and loss of the lead, especially in light of his team being one game ahead of its closest competitor. The coach assured the players of his complete satisfaction with what they presented and avoided blaming some of the players who committed serious mistakes, especially in the middle of the defense or even the attackers who missed a number of scoring opportunities, especially the Italian Rettegui. Rodgers stressed that there is still a long way to go to compete in the league championship, and that Al-Qadisiyah’s chances in the competition are high, and that they must think positively, indicating that he is satisfied with what they presented throughout the two halves of the match and the double effort they made against the strongest team in the league, which has the most skilled, fastest, and most valuable players in the technical field, and is led by a capable coach. After the coach finished speaking to the players in the locker room, he headed to the press conference to make sure to deliver a motivating speech during which he said: “We delivered a message to Al Hilal that Al Qadisiyah is capable of competing with them until the end.” Rodgers justified this message by saying that he aims to clarify that Al-Qadisiyah rose from the first division only two seasons ago and is now competing with the strongest teams, competing with them, led by the experienced Al-Hilal, indicating that he does not mean other matters outside this framework. In the technical aspect of the match, the great impact of the absence of veteran Spanish defender Nacho Fernandez on the average center back of Al-Qadisiyah became clear, as reaching the goal for Al-Hilal players was easier than ever before, and Belgian goalkeeper Koen Castells shouldered many of the burdens, while a number of Al-Hilal strikers provided other opportunities to score. On the offensive side, Italian striker Retegui was not on his best day, wasting a number of opportunities, and took advantage of only one opportunity, including the second goal, which came after Al Hilal widened the gap by scoring 3 goals to one, after which Al Qadisiyah tried to at least make amends and maintain the lead, but time did not help them, and Al Hilal was able to maintain the winning result. Redgers touched on the defensive errors, especially in the second and third goals for Al Hilal, but he did not blame any player, but rather praised everyone in a step that indicates the extent of the coach’s responsibility and overcoming emotions. Statistics for the match between Al-Qadisiyah and Al-Hilal showed that the host was slightly superior in field control. Which means that Al Hilal coach Inzaghi chose to play concentrated play and direct attack rather than retain the ball, which caused the team to suffer in many matches, where the team was dominating, but losing points.
The Al Hilal club team decided to remain in the city of Dammam after the victory over Al-Qadisiyah on Friday evening, due to the proximity of the team’s next match in the Qatari capital, Doha, against the Qatari Al-Shamal team.
Al Hilal players will return to training in Dammam on Saturday evening, and the team delegation will depart on Sunday morning for the State of Qatar. The team will conduct a training session on Sunday evening in Doha after its arrival, in preparation for facing Al-Shamal of Qatar next Tuesday in the third round of the AFC Elite Champions League.
Italian Simone Inzaghi, the team’s coach and one of the players, will hold a press conference at Al-Bayt Stadium at 7:15 pm next Monday. To talk about the match, the team will hold its last training session at eight o’clock in the evening on the same day.
