Al-Hilal win Clasico: 5 things we learned from latest round of Roshn Saudi League

While there has been a staggering number of headlines around the world about domestic football in Saudi Arabia due to Al-Nassr’s signing of Cristiano Ronaldo in the past week, there is always plenty going on in the league. Here are five things we learned from the latest day of action.

In an unprecedented week, Al-Hilal do familiar things

The tens of millions of newly interested observers of Saudi Arabian football learned a valuable lesson on Thursday: Never count Al-Hilal out. They went to Al-Ittihad and won 1-0 to move into third.

It is not that often in Saudi Arabian football that the spotlight moves completely away from Al-Hilal, the most successful club in the country’s history, as well as that of Asia. It has done just that in the past week or so, but a hard-fought victory at Al-Ittihad was a reminder of what the champions do best when the pressure is on: They win big games. 

And the pressure was on. After dropping four points from the previous two encounters, a trip to Jeddah to take on the unbeaten Tigers, who would have gone top with a victory, was a tough one indeed. Yet a 12th-minute goal, a typical strike from Odion Ighalo, now not the only former Manchester United forward in the league, who was once again in the right place at the right time, was enough to give the Blues a big result. They won the midfield battle and once ahead displayed admirable concentration and discipline.

It was a battling performance and showed that the champions will not give up their title easily. Had they lost, they could have found themselves seven points off the pace by Friday and coach Ramon Diaz would have started to sweat. This, however, was a solid performance.

Nuno Santo needs to learn how to beat Al-Hilal

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