Neymar, six goals and first place on perfect evening for Al-Hilal

The question before the game was ‘will he or won’t he’ but more important than whether Neymar would make his debut in Saudi Arabia on Saturday evening was Al-Hilal thrashing Al-Riyadh 6-1 to go back on top of the Saudi Pro League above champions Al-Ittihad in the most emphatic of styles. It is a case of so far so good for the 18-time champions who now have 16 points from the first six games. It was a regulation win but it was a bit more than that.

It was a perfect evening. In the end Neymar, who surpassed Pele’s goalscoring record for Brazil in the international break as he moved on to 79 goals for the five-time world champions, came off the bench to a rapturous reaction just after the hour. By then, the result wasn’t really in doubt but he had the fans on their feet and very excited about the future. 

He had been there watching from the bench as his team-mates in blue made the running against the newly-promoted team from elsewhere in the capital who had collected four points from the first five –now six–games of the season.

The breakthrough came after 27 minutes as Michael broke into the right side of the area and was brought down by Mohammed Al-Shwirekh. The referee pointed to the spot and Aleksandar Mitrovic stepped up to fire home his fifth goal of the season so far.

Riyadh gave as good as they got but just could not find a way through the blue backline and then Al-Hilal extended their lead just before the break. Sergej Milinkovic-Savic drove towards the left side of the area and then slipped the ball through to Yasser Al-Shahrani. The left-back then returned the favour and then was resupplied by the Serbian and shot home from close range.

From then on, it was always going to be the case that Riyadh were going