By Mohammed Al-Kinani
JEDDAH – Al-Hilal claimed the Crown Prince Cup for the third successive time after edging Al-Ahli 2-1 at the King Fahd International Stadium in Riyadh Friday.
Brazilian striker Victor Simoes put Ahli in the lead in the first half, but Swedish midfielder Christian Wilhelmsson scored the equalizer for the Blues. Brazilian midfielder Thiago Neves’s goal midway through the second half made the difference for the defending champion.
Gracing the event, Crown Prince Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz, Deputy Premier, Minister of Defense and Aviation and Inspector General, later handed the gold medals to Hilal players before awarding the cup to the team’s skipper, Mohammed Al-Deayea. He also gave away the silver medals to Al-Ahli players.
Hilal banked on players on its left wing Abdullah Al-Zouri, Mohammed Al-Shalhoub and Wilhelmsson to make moves. Wilhelmsson kept on moving from one side to the other to add pressure on Ahli. Ahli, however, remained focused, played solid defense and looked for counter-attacks.
Simoes received a pass in the box two minutes before the break. He controlled the ball and kicked it into the right corner of Hilal keeper Hasan Al-Otaibi.
Yasser Al-Qahtani had an opportunity to equalize for Hilal a minute later but his header went high.
Hilal players returned after the break rejuvinated. They started attacking the rival’s goal more often which resulted in an equalizer for Hilal.
Qahtani reached the opponent’s area, dodged a defender and before the ball could go over the goal-line sent a cross to Wilhelmsson, who tabbed it into the goal in the 65th minute.
After the goal, the two coaches made a couple of changes. Hilal’s Eric Gerets brought in Nawaf Al-Abed for midfielder Mohammed Al-Shalhoub, while Ahli’s Sergio Farias replaced striker Malik Mo’adh with Abdurraheem Al-Jaizawi and Mohammed Al-Sifri with another midfielder Waleed Ba-Khashwain.
The changes, however, failed to help Ahli as Hilal managed to score another goal in the 77th minute.
Wilhelmsson received a long pass, which he controlled and advanced into the box before hitting a cross to his teammates in the six-yard area. Ahli keeper Abdullah Al-Ma’ayouf, however, deflected it to the unmarked Neves, who kicked it into the left corner of the keeper.
Farias bolstered his frontline with a striker, replacing midfielder Alaa Raishani with striker Hasan Al-Rahib, but the change bore no fruit.
A 90th-minute Ahli kick could have spoiled Hilal’s day, but the Brazilian Ahli Marcinho’s kick from outside the box hit the bar.
While Hilal players’ experience played an important role in the team’s defending the title, the absence of three key players - Saifuddine Ghazal, Mo’ataz Al-Mousa and Tayseer Al-Jassim - affected Ahli’s performance.
After the ceremony Hilal’s Belgian coach Gerets offered his gold medal to one of the disabled fan attending the match.
The administration of King Fahd Stadium confiscated around 1,500 scanned copies of entry tickets. The case has been referred to the authorities concerned.
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