Abderrazak Hamdallah making his point at club and international level

It was quite a weekend for Abderrazak Hamdallah. The Moroccan star came out on top in his personal battle with Talisca and Al-Nassr and then turned his attention to national team coach Vahid Halilhodic.

Things are never boring on or off the pitch with the new Al-Ittihad striker around.

On the pitch, it went as well as it could have done. On Saturday, Al-Ittihad met Al-Nassr, the club Hamdallah was released from in November. To say the two-time Saudi Pro League top scorer left under a cloud is an understatement. There is still plenty of bad feeling and in the build-up to the game, Al-Nassr’s Talisca, who joined the club last year and is currently leading the goalscoring charts, expressed some of it. Among other things, the Brazilian claimed that the atmosphere around the team had improved a lot since Hamdallah left. The North African reported the comments to the league’s disciplinary committee to add an extra edge to what was already a huge game.

Hamdallah was clearly determined to make his mark and starred as Al-Ittihad defeated their title rivals 3-0 to claim a 10th successive league win that took the Tigers seven points clear of new second-place team Al-Shabab and nine ahead of Al-Nassr.

To start with, he drew the fifth-minute penalty after being brought down by Anselmo with the Brazilian’s team-mates letting the striker know that they felt the spot-kick had been won unfairly. At least the Jeddah club did not rub salt into the wound as it was Romarinho who slotted the ball home. On the half-hour, Hamdallah provided the assist as Abdulaziz Al-Bishi curled home a lovely second. Just before the hour, the hitherto anonymous Talisca was red-carded and a perfect evening for Hamdallah ended when he scored his fourth in