Champions Al-Ittihad host Al-Hilal in first Classico of the Saudi Pro League season

The new Roshn Saudi League season is slowly getting into gear and, with world class talent on display and the planet watching, it seems as if every game is a massive one.

Yet Friday’s Saudi “Classico” between Al-Ittihad and Al-Hilal is a genuinely huge game, the biggest of the campaign so far. It also offers both teams an opportunity to extract a measure of revenge.

For the champions Al-Ittihad, there is a chance to show they can beat the most successful club in the history of Saudi Arabia and Asia.

However, Al-Hilal are seemingly becoming a bogey team for the champions.

In the last four league meetings between the two, the Tigers have collected just a single point. Two defeats in the season before last cost Al-Ittihad a league championship when they had been 16 points ahead and it was all there for the taking.

The Tigers may have ended up as champions last season, but they still struggled to get the measure of the Blues and lost one and drew one in the league. Add the loss to Al-Hilal in the King Salman Club Cup in August and the semifinal defeat in the King’s Cup in April, and victory in front of a sellout crowd in Jeddah would see celebrations almost as enthusiastic as those that followed the clinching of the title last May.

Despite the poor recent record against their rivals, so far in this campaign Al-Ittihad have been perfect with four wins in four games, with 12 goals scored and none conceded. The champions have continued this time around where they left off from last season when they were a well-oiled machine under coach Nuno Santo. In fact, they have moved up a level with the addition of Karim Benzema, N’Golo Kante, Jota and Fabinho. It is not surprising that they are top of the SPL.

The major issue is —