5 things learned from King’s Cup quarter-finals

RIYADH: The King’s Cup hopefuls were cut from eight to four on Monday and Tuesday, a round that brought plenty of action, thrills, and spills. Here are five things that Arab News learned.

Grohe saves the day for Al-Ittihad

After two hours of football ended 1-1, the Tigers moved into the last four with a 4-3 penalty shootout win over Al-Feiha. Knocking the holders out is always a big deal but it was a close-run thing.

Haroune Camara showed his strength, technique, and nose for goal in putting Nuno Santo’s men ahead.

No team have scored against Al-Ittihad in the league for almost 10 hours of action, a run that has seen them go top, but Ricardo took advantage of a fortuitous rebound inside the area to fire home past Marcelo Grohe. The Brazilian goalkeeper has had a fantastic season and already broken the league record for clean sheets by a foreign shot stopper and, despite finally conceding, was the star of the show once again.

Grohe made two fine saves in the shootout, the first and the fifth. First, he stuck out a hand to send Anthony Nwakaeme’s kick over the bar and then he flung himself to the right to deny Mohammed Al-Baqawi, and that was that.

Al-Hilal remain the cup kings

Who can beat Al-Hilal in a knockout competition these days? It seems that only Real Madrid, the most successful team in the world, can. After reaching the final of the FIFA Club World Cup and then the Asian Champions League in February, the Blues are on course for another trophy, and it will take a great team to stop them.

When Mohamed Kanno gave the Riyadh giants a 17th-minute lead from the penalty spot, a comfortable win looked to be on the cards, but Al-Fateh asked the Asian champions plenty of questions and were soon back level thanks