5 things learned from Saudi Arabia’s 1-1 friendly draw with Albania

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia continued World Cup preparations on Wednesday with a 1-1 draw against Albania in Abu Dhabi. Here are five things learned from their second of five outing before the big kick-off in Qatar.

1. Al-Shehri staking his claim to be main man

It is welcome that Saudi Arabia scored again, and it came thanks to a penalty from Saleh Al-Shehri just before half-time with the Albanians finding the target just after the break.

That is now two goals in two from the Al-Hilal forward since he returned from injury. He is the only man to score in the last six games and that is something of a worry for the coach Herve Renard, but this was always going to be an issue.

For the last few months, it looked as if the main man up front was going to be Firas Al-Buraikan. The 23-year-old has been in fine form for his club and finished in the top 10 goal scorers in the league last season, the highest-placed local striker. It may well be however that he is more effective coming off the bench with Al-Shehri looking lively and like he has a point to prove.

Scoring goals is going to be difficult in Qatar and even creating chances is not going to be easy. The choice of who leads the line is going to be crucial. At the moment, Al-Shehri is showing his class and ability to keep his cool in front of goal and is looking more likely to be the forward who lines up against Argentina in Saudi Arabia’s first match.

2. Time to end experimenting

The opening game of the World Cup is now less than four weeks away. Given the injuries and everything else and the number of games that are still to come, it is understandable that Renard did the same thing against Albania as against North Macedonia and played one 11 for the first hour and then had