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 — apart from the long-standing absence of defensive lynchpin Ahmed Hegazi — the muscle injury sustained by Benzema in Monday’s 3-0 at Al-Wehda. Santo is hoping the French striker will be fit, and Benzema was able to carry out some light training on Thursday night.
Even if the current holder of the FIFA Ballon d’Or does not manage to take to the pitch, the team showed that even without him in that most recent victory, that they can remain a major threat with the likes of Romarinho, Jota and the impressive Igor Coronado on form. Abderrazak Hamdallah, top scorer last season, is always ready to contribute.
Al-Hilal are obviously at a different level to Al-Wehda but for them too, this game is not just about three points. The Riyadh giants had to sit and watch last season as Al-Ittihad claimed their first title since 2009.
In the end it was a comfortable triumph for the Tigers and it hurt the Blues who see themselves as natural champions in Saudi Arabia. The chance to defeat the usurpers so early in the season would go down very well among fans of Al-Hilal and show that under new coach Jorge Jesus — this will be a clash of two Portuguese tacticians — this season will be different.
Since the end of the last campaign, the 18-time champions have been busy in the transfer market. Neymar may not be fit enough yet to take part in his first Classico but there is still plenty of talent new and old.
Ruben Neves, Aleksandar Mitrovic and Malcom have arrived this summer and have already adapted to life in Saudi Arabia. Kalidou Koulibaly is in the center of defense with Yassine Bounou, who may come up against his Moroccan compatriot Hamdallah, in goal.
Koulibaly and Bounou looked particularly good in a solid 2-0 win against Ettifaq. That result means that the Blues now have 10 points from the first four games and sit in third, behind the perfect twin giants of Jeddah — Al-Ahli and Al-Ittihad.
The performances mean that this version of Al-Hilal is a significant upgrade to last season’s and that is even before Neymar joins the action.
The game will not define the season for either team but will give everyone a good idea of where they are at.
Three points for Ittihad will not only show that they are once again the team to beat but are also able to defeat Al-Hilal. It will set them up perfectly for the international break but the same can be said of the visitors from Riyadh. Beating the champions on their home turf would be a huge statement.
The stage is set and the world is watching.
