RIYADH: Al-Hilal defeated Al-Raed 3-2 on Saturday despite being a goal down with 88 minutes on the clock.
The late, late show in Riyadh means that Jorge Jesus and his men are just two points behind leaders Al-Ittihad as the Saudi Pro League takes a month’s break.
If thoughts had strayed to Real Madrid after the draw for the FIFA Club World Cup on Thursday, the visitors ensured that Al-Hilal endured a frustrating evening at home, in a game that they dominated but were unable to make that superiority count — until the 114th minute.
The champions and their fans were shocked in the seventh minute as Karim El Berkaoui put the visitors ahead. It was a well-worked goal.
Mohammed Al-Dossari fired a low cross in from the right, and there was the Moroccan to get in front of Hassan Tambakti to steer the ball past Yassine Bounou. It was to be their last attempt on target for the next 70 minutes.
The hosts pushed for the equalizer but had to wait until just before the break to get back on level terms. It was a goal worth waiting for, however. Malcom looked up just outside the area and chipped over a perfect cross towards the far post for Sergej Milinkovic-Savic. There was still work for the Serbian midfielder to do but his looping header was perfect, flying over the goalkeeper into the opposite top corner of the Al-Raed goal.
Al-Hilal continued to lay siege to the goal but just couldn’t find a way through and then, incredibly, Al-Raed restored their lead with 12 minutes remaining. Yahya Sunbul burst into the right side of the area and then shot across the diving Bounou to find the target and stun the home crowd once more.
Al-Hilal drew level once more with two minutes of normal time remaining thanks to Marcos Leonardo, who headed a Joao Cancelo cross emphatically home.
Still the hosts came forward and the winning goal came in the 114th minute, with defender Ali Al-Bulaihi sending the fans wild as he headed home a corner.
Earlier in the day, Gini Wijnaldum relieved the pressure on Steven Gerrard as the former Liverpool midfielder scored the decisive goal in Ettifaq’s 2-1 win, a first in 10 league games.
Al-Ahli beat Al-Taawoun 4-2 to move into fifth.
Al-Hilal leave it late in spectacular win
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Al-Hilal leave it late in spectacular win
- The visitors ensured that Al-Hilal endured a frustrating evening at home
- The champions and their fans were shocked in the seventh minute as Karim El Berkaoui put the visitors ahead
Klaebo becomes 1st athlete to win 6 golds at a Winter Games as Norway sweeps 50km mass start
- Klaebo’s victory in the 50-kilometer mass start race shattered the nearly 50-year record
- Klaebo said he was overwhelmed with emotions crossing the finish line
TESERO, Italy: Norway’s Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo completed his historic gold medal sweep of the men’s cross-country skiing events on Saturday by winning his sixth race and setting the record for the most golds by one athlete in a single Winter Olympics.
Klaebo’s victory in the 50-kilometer mass start race shattered the nearly 50-year record set by American speed skater Eric Heiden, who won five golds in the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics.
All of Heiden’s wins were in individual races and two of Klaebo’s have come in team events, so Heiden’s record for individual wins still stands.
Klaebo said he was overwhelmed with emotions crossing the finish line and couldn’t describe how he felt after repeating the feat he accomplished at last year’s world championships in Trondheim, Norway, when he won all six events.
“It’s unbelievable,” he said. “It still feels really good to race, and I’m always looking forward to going out there and fighting for the medal.”
Klaebo’s teammates, Martin Loewstroem Nyenget, took silver, and Emil Iversen, won bronze in a Norwegian sweep.
“I’m starting to believe maybe he is a machine,” Nyenget said of Klaebo, who sprinted uphill past him at the end to win in his trademark fashion. “It’s close to impossible to beat him in the finish.”
The three Norwegians broke out to an early lead and then continued to build the gap on their chasers.
In the final lap, Nyenget and Klaebo pushed uphill and dropped Iversen. Klaebo stayed in second waiting to launch his winning move.
As the two reached the final hill, Klaebo literally ran away from Nyenget and was bound for glory.
As he glided toward the finish, he pointed his fingers toward the sky, took one stride across the line, toppled over on his right hip and rolled onto his back.
France’s Theo Schely finished fourth, nearly three minutes back and Savelii Korostelev, a Russian competing as an individual neutral athlete, finished fifth at 3:38.3 back.
The highest-placed US skier was Gus Schumacher, who won a silver in a team relay, in 13th place.
The win extends Klaebo’s record for most career Winter Olympic gold medals to 11 over three Games. The previous record had been eight, which Klaebo broke Feb. 15.
Klaebo has the second-most Olympic golds overall. US swimming great Michael Phelps has 23.
The win gave Norway a record 18th gold medal and further increased their lead in the total medal count in these games to 40 overall.
The country set the record Friday for the most gold medals won by a nation at a single Winter Olympics when biathlete Johannes Dale-Skjevdal won the 15-kilometer mass start race.
