Al-Hilal, Al-Nassr launch new era in Saudi football with friendly wins in Europe

RIYADH: Saudi Arabian clubs are going to have to get accustomed to the new reality of football.

After a pre-season friendly in Austria on Tuesday finished with Al-Hilal defeating ND Gorica 2-0, players from the Slovenian club went over to Ruben Neves to take photos with the Portuguese star.

It was, after all, a historic occasion as the Portugal international made his first appearance for the 18-time champions. There should be many more to come even if most will not be as gentle as this.

It has been a busy few days for the club with Jorge Jesus taking over as head coach for a second time.

As has happened before, Al-Hilal have headed to the green expanses of Austria and faced the second-tier Slovenians.

The Portuguese boss named a familiar team with Mohammed Al-Owais in goal and a back four of Mohammed Al-Burayk, Ali Al-Bulaihi, Mohammed Al-Khaibari, and Nasser Al-Dawsari. In midfield, there was Andre Carrillo, Mohamed Kanno, and Salem Al-Dawsari, and Michael with Saleh Al-Shehri and Abdullah Al-Hamdan in attack.

For an early pre-season friendly there was a good level of intensity with both teams trying to get forward and Al-Shehri should really have put his team ahead after 15 minutes, side footing wide from close range with the goal at his mercy.

The four-time Asian champions were on top with Michael and Al-Hamdan forcing the goalkeeper into action but there was nothing he could do just before the break when Al-Khaibari fired a shot into the net from outside the area for a rare goal.

As one would expect in such an early pre-season game there were a number of changes made after the break with Jesus looking to give several other players some time on the pitch.

Neves came off the bench but, with just five minutes