Topic: Saudi Professional League 2023/2024 - page 484. (Read 112763 times)

Every player is definitely going to say that he joined the club because he likes the place and also the people. But we all know that at first, it is all about the money. Maybe later they will be able to get used to with the surroundings and also start liking the place and the people. And I do not understand what people expect from professional players. They are professional players for a reason. They get paid to play football. People cannot have the expectation of a player to not move to other club or league if he is getting a good amount of money.

I am not saying that Saudi is a bad place to live. It is actually better than most other countries in the world. It is even better compared to USA or Canada. I can say that based on all the degeneracy that has been going on in those countries recently. Saudi does not have any of those degeneracies. but I don’t think those are the main reasons why Cristiano Ronaldo accepted the offer. and he definitely did the right thing by accepting the offer.

I guess it will now slowly but surely turn into a competition between the goal scorers like Benzema and Ronaldo, but the game for Al-Nassr is an important one now. If they win it they can stay in striking distance to Al-Ittihad and the upper part of the table in general. A loss would be another big disappointment, though this should not happen against the opponent they will face tomorrow. Ronaldo is already leading the goal scorer list and he seems to be more vital than Benzema so far. I guess age is doing more to Benzema than it is to Ronaldo.

On paper, Al-Ittihad really controlled the game, but Al-Akhdoud also performed very well. Each goalkeeper made 4 saves throughout the match and it is not surprising that Al-Ittihad had so much difficulty scoring goals. However, Al-Ittihad's only goal was scored by Karim Benzema which saved them from a draw. This is a pretty good result for Al-Ittihad because they managed to shift Al-Hilal's position at the top of the standings. Meanwhile, Al-Hilal will also play a match today against Al-Riyadh and if Al-Hilal succeeds in securing full points then this week the top position will be taken over by Al-Hilal again.

Maybe one of the reasons why Al-Akhdoud performed so well and played with full confidence was because they were playing as hosts in that match. And you are right that Al-Akhdoud's performance should be appreciated. It wasn't just their goalkeeper who performed well and saved a lot of goals. But I think almost all Al-Akhdoud players play with quite discipline. Their back line is even very strong. And their midfield also quite often made good breakthrough passes which were followed by fast attacks by Al-Akhdoud's forward players.

But Al-Akhdoud has only had 1 win so far. Namely when facing Al-Riyadh the previous week. And actually Al-Akhdoud hasn't been very good since the start of the season. So seeing them being able to make things difficult for Al-Ittihad in yesterday's match was something we probably didn't expect at all. Because what I thought before the match started was that Al-Ittihad would definitely score a lot of goals in that match. But everything was unexpected.

At least ittihad was not drawn or lose against akhdoud. It's good enough to save ittihad's reputation. It's caused by akhdoud has been placing at the bottom table of SPL. It will be a shame if ittihad would lose against akhdoud. Benzema once again helps its club.
No doubt if he has always been called as savior in the real madrid. he is also doing it in ittihad as well. That's a good three points for ittihad. My bet goes right after benzema was scoring the only goal for this match.
The thing is really need in staying at the top of table is consistently winning the game no matter how struggle the performance from the team. Gaining three points will maintain your leading status while playing poorly but scored a lot of goals, but a defeat will lead to a downfall.
Im feeling so happy ittihad won the game even though it was only winning with small score against the bottom table team.

Benzema missed some opportunities and he looked tired in the match with some shots that are lack of power. However when he got a half of chance, he cleverly converted it to a winning goal for Al Ittihad. If other players are in Benzema position, maybe they will not score a goal but Benzema with his experience, was very calmly and wisely to make a goal for his team.

In general, I am not impressed with Be

nzema performance in the match.Hamdallah is the best scorer of Saudi Professional League in the last season by beating Talisco and Cristiano Ronaldo in Al Nassr. He is important for Al Ittihad even in this season when the club has a world class striker like Benzema.

It was really impressive when Benzema scored right in front of goalkeeper Al Akhdoud who smartly took advantage of the opportunity and produced 1 score which was considered Al Ittihad savior in yesterday match. I also saw that Benzema actually had the opportunity several times but always failed because of Al Akhdoud strong defense.
and on the one hand I appreciate Al Akhdoud performance which is considered a weak team which was able to prevent Ittihad players from conceding too many scores and I also admit that Akhdoud goalkeeper Paulo Vítor performed very well in securing every ball shot towards him but unfortunately he was a little fooled when the ball approached with Benzema who finally conceded. but still I really admire the goalkeeper and maybe this is all because Al Akhdoud is playing at home so his confidence is very high which can produce a good performance.

One of their best strikers did not play in this match, he was not even on the reserve list, Abderrazak Hamdallah has better statistics than Benzema, not sure why he didn't play, but his absence is enough to prove that Ittihad FC is much better with Hamdallah was compared only to Benzema.
The result of the match was still a win for Ittihad, but only being able to score one goal was not a convincing victory, controlling the course of the match but the opportunities that were maximized were very minimal.
Ittihad FC were last season's champions so they will try to defend this title well, but Al Hilal has a striker who is also sharp and Aleksandar Mitrović will try to bring his team to win the match against Al Riyadh to take over again at the top of the standings, and the competition between the two teams will be very tight.

Al Ittihad had good opportunity to win the game, already leading 3-1 halftime, but they slight behind and witnessing the constant pressure from Al Hilal. Jorge Jesus have made some few changes that would affect their game, let's say good attacking frontlines. Aleksandar Mitrović scored an hattrick and levelled the game, his presence did matters in the team. Al Hilal will continue to use him in league games because he's one of these aggressive attacker, who knows how to position infront of goals. Mitrović an outstanding player for Al Hilal after they signed him from Fulham this summer. He's proofing himself to be one of these few good signings in the club.

Aleksandar Mitrović is really on fire and he has just made a hattrick while Al Hilal beat Al Ittihad so this is good news because finally he can adapt with Al Hilal and i am sure today against Al Riyadh he will be played again and probably will scored goal and Al Riyadh so far has been displayed poor performance that they got 3 losing streak and Al Riyadh unable to scores from those matches which mean they have a problem with their attacking lines and besides that their defensive lines also quite poor and this should be a easy match for Al Hilal because they are in the good shape after got 5 winning streak in all competitions so this is good chances for Al Hilal to resumes their winning streak and collect 3 points

They won the match, and it matters. Now they have 15 points from 6 matches. They won 5, and lost the match against Al Hilal. Even the match against Al Hilal wasn't that disappointing, since it was really close. They lost by 3-4, but then all of their star players managed to score goals - Romarinho, Abderrazak Hamdallah and Karim Benzema. Unfortunately for them, their opponents proved too strong and goals from Aleksandar Mitrović and Salem Al-Dawsari meant that Al Hilal would walk away with 3 points from the match. For Al Ittihad, the next match is against a weak Al Fateh. They should be able to take their tally to 18 points from 7 matches.

After seeing this match. I'm starting to think that this season we shouldn't underestimate any club in the Saudi Pro League. Because even though Al-Akhdoud doesn't have many superstar players in his squad. However, I was quite surprised by the performance they showed in that match. In particular, I didn't think that the al-akhdoud player with back number 99 was S. Godwin. He showed extraordinary running speed. It's just that I think he's a little bad at controlling the ball. because several times he managed to penetrate Al-Ittihad's defense but he was bad at completing the opportunities he created. He is a Nigerian player who I think will be quite scary if he also has good accuracy and ball control. But it seems he is only good at running fast.

I agree that Karim Benzema was indeed a savior in this match. He also had several opportunities in the first half, but he failed to maximize them because Al-Akhdoud's defense was quite tight and should not be taken lightly. So Benzema had difficulty shooting from inside the penalty box. So he had to shoot from outside the penalty box and yes, it was too weak and of course it was caught by goalkeeper Al-Akhdoud quite easily. However, in the second half, Benzema scored a quite classy goal. Well, he put the ball in using his knee and managed to trick goalkeeper Al-Akhdoud.

Akhdoud has almost same stats as Al-Ittihad but that club only lack of ball possession. Ittihad was so struggling in scoring against akhdoud but benzeme has been coming as savior for them by scoring the only goal during the match.
Glad i have picked ittihad. Even a club with so many superstars is still struggling to face a garbage club like akhdoud. The performance from any clubs in saudi pro league can't be predicted easily.

Good to see how ittihad gets another three points. This club may become the strongest candidate to win SPL after al hilal.

The prediction came true, but the expectation was high over Al-Ittihad. The team struggled much for goal. The only goal of the match came at the 72^nd minute from Benzema. Somehow they were able to win the match, which is the only thing good for the team. Apart, the performance isn't enough to be the top contender of the league. In the other match Al-Wehda have made 4 goals which is really good against Damac able to take 2 goals.

Saudi Arabia bought many players this season and they spent lots of money on the players they hired during the summer.
Vítor Hugo Teixeira was working on Porto for 16 years and he was a nutritionist in this team while we were not expecting this but the ex-nutritionist of Proto left the team to Al Ittihad.
Nuno Espírito Santo was the reason for him to leave Porto after all these years.
  

Yeah, we predicted previously that Al-Ittihad will definitely be aiming for 3 points to take over the standings, Al-Ittihad managed to secure this match but overall their game was not impressive even though we expected there would be more goals unfortunately only one goal. Surprisingly Al-Akhdoud was able to put pressure on Al-Ittihad defense with 8 shots and 4 on target almost the same statistics as Al-Ittihad 10 shots 5 on target.

When Talisca joined the Saudi League, the league didn’t get the attention that they got when Ronaldo and other European players joined, Lot’s of people are now focusing on the league, attention is beginning to be shifted to Saudi league, which I think is one of the things the Saudi League is looking for. If Ronaldo didn’t go to the Saudi League right from the beginning, even as they gave players a high offer, some of the player’s currently in Saudi league would still reject it, and they wouldn’t go there. But Ronaldo's influence gave the Saudi League the opportunity to get some players they needed, even though they couldn’t get them all,  because some rejected their offer even with the amount they decided to offer.

Al-Ittihad is another club apart from Al Nassr that's gained the attention of many football faithfuls across the globe and that's because of the fact that they are the current club of current Balon D'or winner and 5 time UEFA Champions League winner Karim Benzema and as well as former English Premier League's best player of the season in Ngolo Kante.
However, before their arrival at Al-Ittihad, there was a player who didn't just make his club Al Nassr more famous but the entire Saudi Arabian League and that person in Cristiano Ronaldo. Until he decides to end playing football for any Saudi Arabia club, I don't think there's any player that's gonna be more famous than him

Al Ittihad managed to make a comeback after losing in the previous match. So, in this match, Al Ittihad appeared impressive with their statistics taking a lot of shots compared to the hosts. Even in this match, the formation they used was different from the formation used by Santo when facing Al Hilal. It seems that their confidence is getting stronger after achieving this victory because Al Ittihad managed to return to being the leader of the standings. However, for that we will look at the results of the match in tomorrow's match between Al Hilal vs Al Riyadh. Al Hilal could reclaim the main ranking if they managed to beat Al Riyad. In fact in this match Al Hilal are very favorites to win because the opponents they face are low ranked team so Al Hilal could possibly record a victory with a big score in tomorrow' match. 

Yes there are many games in the Saudi Professional league that can attract attention now asides Al Nassr. Al Ittihad have some very good players that can attract attention, so their games are becoming more attractive to watch. Benzema scored in their game today, but this goal still puts him far away from the golden boot in the league where some other players have already recorded more than five goals. Benzema has to meet expectations of contesting with Christiano Ronaldo for the golden boot.