DUBAI: Saudi Arabia’s preparations for the World Cup got off to a perfect start with a comprehensive 3-0 friendly win over Moldova at King Abdullah Sport City Stadium in Jeddah on Monday night.
Omar Hawsawi opened the scoring in the first half and then Taisir Al-Jassim and Mohannad Assiri were on target in the second period to ensure coach Juan Antonio Pizzi got his reign off to a winning start.
Pizzi, who gave debuts to Mohammed Al-Kuwaikbi Abdulwahab Jaafar, will have been thrilled with the clean sheet, meaning he has a solid base to work from, while the fact the Green Falcons scored three goals bodes well, particularly as they only managed two goals in their final 270 minutes of football under previous coach Edguardo Bauza.
This was pretty much Pizzi’s strongest available team and they should only get better once playmaker Nawaf Al-Abed, who is working his way back from injury, and the players on loan in Spain, particularly Salem Al-Dawsari and Fahad Al-Muwallad, are integrated back in.
What was so impressive about the performance against Moldova was the way Saudi Arabia dominated from start to finish, enjoying 72 percent of the possession and registering 18 shots to Moldova’s six.
The Green Falcons got off to a flying start when Al-Nassr center-back Hawsawi blasted the ball into the roof of the net just ten minutes into the game after the Moldovan defense failed to clear Al-Jassim’s corner kick.
Al-Jassim went from architect to executioner ten minutes after half-time, doubling Saudi Arabia’s lead when he collected a pass from Mohammed Al-Sahlawi and buried it into the bottom corner from 25 yards out.
The closest the visitors came to scoring was on 65 minutes when Vladimir Ambros outmuscled Hawsawi inside the box and unleashed a left-footed effort from a close range, but goalkeeper Mohammed Al-Owais was well positioned to parry away the strike.
At the other end, Mohammed Al-Sahlawi thought he had scored his 29th goal for his country when he met Yasser Al-Shahrani’s cross with a powerful header in the 74th minute, but goalkeeper Serghei Pascenco flew to his left to push the attempt behind for a corner kick.
The third goal did arrive, though, two minutes from time when substitutes Al-Kuwaikbi and Mohannad Assiri combined for Assiri, the Al-Ahli striker, to dink in his fourth international goal and his first in more than seven years.
The Green Falcons are back in action on Wednesday when they take largely a second-string team to play Iraq in Basra.
Saudi Arabia: Mohammed Al-Owais; Yasser Al-Shahrani, Osama Hawsawi (Motaz Hawsawi 69), Omar Hawsawi, Mansour Al-Harbi; Abdulmalik Al-Khaibari (Ibrahim Ghaleb 46), Abdullah Otayf, Hussein Al-Moqahwi (Mohammed Kanno 46), Taisir Al-Jassim (Abdulwahab Jaafar 75), Salman Al-Moasher (Mohammed Al-Kuwaikbi 46); Mohammed Al-Sahlawi (Mohannad Assiri 81)
Saudi Arabia kick off World Cup preparation with handsome win over Moldova
Saudi Arabia kick off World Cup preparation with handsome win over Moldova
Sweden’s Ekstrom takes Dakar stage seven win in Saudi Arabia
- Qatar’s Nasser Al-Attiyah stays top in the car category
WADI AL-DAWASI: Mattias Ekstrom won stage seven of the Dakar Rally on Sunday as the field started the second week in Saudi Arabia with late drama for Toyota’s Henk Lategan while Qatar’s Nasser Al-Attiyah stayed top in the car category.
South African Lategan had looked like taking the stage and overall lead but let both slip through his fingers after the day’s final checkpoint.
Instead, Sweden’s Ekstrom, winner of the prologue in a Ford Raptor, became the first driver in the top car category to take more than one stage this year.
Lategan had led Ekstrom after 417 of 459km from Riyadh to Wadi Al-Dawasir, but finished eight minutes and 35 seconds behind the winner after having to stop for 10 minutes at the 428km mark.
Ekstrom moved up to second overall, four minutes and 47 seconds behind Dacia Sandriders’ five-times Dakar winner Al-Attiyah with Lategan third.
Spaniard Nani Roma was fourth for Ford after being reinstated by stewards late on Saturday’s rest day as winner of stage five and having a one minute and 10 second penalty rescinded.
In the motorcycle category, Australian Daniel Sanders extended his lead over American rival Ricky Brabec to four minutes and 25 seconds with Argentine rider Luciano Benavides a further 15 seconds adrift.
Sanders had been a mere 45 seconds clear after Friday’s sixth stage but Honda’s Brabec finished the 459km stage 10th to the Australian’s fourth.
Argentine Benavides won the stage, his second triumph of the event, in a one-two for the Red Bull KTM factory team with Spaniard Edgar Canet, while Honda’s French challenger Adrien Van Beveren was third.
Monday’s 481km stage eight is the longest of the race with riders and drivers navigating canyons and dunes around Wadi Ad Dawasir.
