Beautiful vs Efficient

I just want to say: what a typical boring win? Yes, it is very typical of al-Hilal to underperform and still be able to get the result. Those who have been following the team for some time know this very well, so no news here, I guess. I was disappointed and saying "the important thing: we got the result we wanted" won't make me feel any better.

Prior to the match I expected al-Hilal to start attacking aggressively since the kick-off. There was no reason to think otherwise: we have a better team, we play at home in front of a loud loyal crowd, and we just beat them on their ground recently. Think again. The blue team has suffered a very slow start, giving advantage to the guests who couldn't reject the generous Hilali gift. Pakhtakor have dominated the midfield and the pressing they exerted in our half of the pitch forced defenders to err several times.

Thirty minutes into the first half, Tareq gets the ball on the left flank, but his attempt to send it into the box is blocked by an opponent. He gains possession again, passes to al-Shelhoub, one touch to Tareq who takes his time and a glance to the area where Yassir and Rodrigao were expectingly waiting. The latter cleverly slips between the two center-backs and heads the ball in the net. It was one of the rare good moments in the match: a brilliant cross by Tareq and a brilliant move by Rodrigao.

Not much has changed in the 2nd half: the guests kept on putting their hosts under pressure, occasionally threatening and leaving plenty of wide open spaces behind, which the home team didn't know how to make use of. Tareq and Yassir left the pitch with minor injuries (actually I doubt they were 100% fit to start) leaving the team practically handicapped.

When the match was coming to an end, al-Shelhoub comes up with the other good moment in the match: a nice through pass to Rodrigao who found him self one-on-one with Pakhtakor goalkeeper who had no choice but to stop the striker illegally. Penalty. The goalie clearly deserved a red card, but the ref did not even give him a warning. It didn't matter much to al-Hilal, but Kuwaitis should be angry. Rodrigao scores from the spot. The match ends. Now we have one match left in the ACL against Kuwait Club away, and we need only one point to qualify to the next stage, but with a performance like what we've seen in Riyadh this could be really difficult.

On the local front, one point is also all what we need from our last two matches to finish on top. Tonight al-Hilal is to host jubilant al-Ahli who outplayed rivals al-Ittihad on Friday to win the Crown Prince Cup. A second trophy, and a perfect closure of the season for the residents of the Green Fort. It will be a good game. It should be. Al-Hilal and al-Ahli usually put a decent display when they face each other, and this will be the forth time they do it this season. Al-Ahli have knocked al-Hilal out of CPC so this might be the chance for Paqueta's boys to pay them back.