Topic: Saudi Professional League 2023/2024 - page 495. (Read 128047 times)

Benzema was the unluckiest player in the Al Ittihad versus Al Tawoon match, but this mistake was still understandable even though Al Ittihad had to be willing to share the points. Yes, Al Hilal dominated even without Neymar, and indeed Al Khaleej was not a very tough opponent for them. Furthermore, Al Ittihad has the opportunity to be moved by Al Nassr and Al Ahli from third place in the SPL standings, of course with the condition that Al Nassr must win against Damac FC, and Al Ahli must also win against Al Wahda, i think on paper Al Nassr and Al Ahli can do it easily.

In other matches, if Al Ettifaq can get full points against Al Riyadh and can score more than three goals, then Al Ittihad position will also be shifted again by Steven Gerrard squad. The SPL standings have become very competitive, I think this is reflected until the end of the season.

SPL picks my interest because they have added European players to the league. Its competitive to watch players portraying their best performance on the pitch. Al Taawon versus Al Ittihad resulted in a 1-1 draw. It was a funny moment to watch Karim Benzema giving Al Ittihad the lead in minutes of first half and also the one that scored an own goal to level the scoresheet in the game. The visitors tried everything within their reach to net another but with the strong defending wall of Al Taawon reciprocated and denied them such chances.

Al Ahli, one of the teams with the highest player investment in Saudi football, had undergone a complete change, but when the new defensive duo of Ibanez and Merih failed to adapt to Jaisse's overly offensive system, we saw the team having major problems defensively in the next four games and despite Merih's withdrawal, the team's inconsistencies in terms of results continued due to failures in the support area. Al Wahda are coached by Donis, an experienced coach who knows this league very well, while Ighalo, who peaked with his Al Hilal performance, has made up for many flaws with five goals since his arrival; they have made further progress, moving away from last year's structure where Fajr was used as a false 9 many times. I expect Al Wahda, who have scored in seven of their last eight games, to utilize their effectiveness out wide. Mahrez, Kessie and Maximin are big threats for Al Ahli. We are expecting a tough match in terms of competition.

The big match between Al Taawoun vs Ittihad FC ended in a 1-1 draw and interestingly both goals were scored by Karim Benzema, I don't mean to mock him but of course, this will really bother him because usually the one who makes a mistake and scores an own goal is a defender or midfielder but Benzema was the one who in fact, the attacker made a mistake which prevented his team from gaining three points to occupy second place in the standings which could also reduce the point difference with Al Hilal.
This was a fairly even match even though the home team created fewer chances but luck was on their side to get 1 point so they still remained in second place in the standings.

Al Hilal won again, although with a narrow score and Mitrovic was again a mainstay for Al Hilal, even though they actually had quite a lot of chances, but Al Khaleej managed to keep their goal so as not to concede many goals, Neymar's absence did not affect Al Hilal in this match, perhaps because the teams they faced were quite different in strength

In yesterday's match, namely the Al-Taawoun vs Al-ittihad match, I was not surprised by the draw that ultimately occurred. But this draw was actually lucky for Al-Taawoun. Because if Benzema didn't stand up and jump there then the ball wouldn't hit his head and score an equalizer. Al-ittihad should have won this match thanks to Benzema's excellent header in the 22nd minute. But after a few minutes, Benzema actually did the same thing to the opposing team. So the score becomes 1-1.

But for other matches, Al-Hilal, without Neymar, seems to be fine. Until now, Al-Hilal is still unbeaten in the last 10 matches. And makes them even stronger at the top of the standings. Al-hilal really seems to be the strongest candidate this season. But if Al-Nassr had not started the season with two defeats then I am sure that now Al-Nassr would be at the top of the standings.

Al Taawon match against Ittihad was a very competitive match, both teams had very strong performances, even Al Taawon, which did not have too many players from europe, was able to compete very strongly and maybe if the kicks from Al Taawon players did not always hit the goal, Al Taawon would definitely win in this match but unfortunately it always does not hit the target.

Benzema performed very well but made an unintentional mistake in the 26th minute and made the score equal but it is true what you said several times Benzema also had the opportunity to score again but failed all because the kick was not on target.

A player's performance is not consistent throughout his career, or a good performance for one club is not consistent for another club.  There are good reasons why we may not be seeing the kind of performances that Karim Benzema did at Real Madrid for Al-Ittihad. Firstly, Karim Benzema is now an old enough player that he cannot perform as well as he used to, and another thing is that he is not getting the same team-mates that he had at Real Madrid but at Al-Ittihad, which is why he is playing his best for the club. Can't do as well as Madrid.  The way Karim Benzema's performance in Saudi Arabia is going, he may perform like this in the upcoming matches too, we may not see much good performance from him.

Al-Taawon and Ittihad's match looked very interesting because Karim Benzema scored 2 goals for each club. Maybe if it weren't for Karim Benzema's own goal, Ittihad would have been superior and could have won the match even though the score was narrow.

Luckily in that match Al-Taawon did not score additional goals to be able to excel in their game so it was not a regret for Ittihad, they had to be satisfied with sharing the points in the match.

The match was full of suprises and was funny cause after scoring a fine header to put his team ahead on the game, Benzema still made an error that brought the equalizer goal 2mins later, he'll be so disappointed at himself for assisting the opposition team get a point from the game, Al-ittihad are the defending champions but I doubt if they'll win this season's trophy they're currently 6points behind the league leaders and needs to start being very consistent if they want to defend their title this season.
 
 However in the match between Al-Nassr and Damac, i expect Al-Nassr to perform very well and win the match comfortably at home they're currently in the 5th place but a win in that match would boost them to the top 3 above Al-ittihad with 22 points, well there star player Cristiano Ronaldo was a good shape for his country in the international break and im expecting a goal from him to continue his streak.

I think it's still in the adjustment stage and we know his arrival at Al-Ittihada is actually quite good. Karim Benzema is just not used to it and he will definitely return to his usual performance to be able to score more goals. He has indeed gotten older since leaving Real Madrid but his level is still quite high for a player in the Saudi league and I don't doubt it.

Maybe last night's draw made Al-Ittihad fail to get closer to Al-Hilal and the draw was also caused by Benzema's failure to score an own goal after he scored first for Al-Ittihad. It's quite unfortunate, but that's football, unexpected events happen and Benzema is the one who is depressed by the result. A distance of 6 points is quite difficult to achieve and they can only hope that Al-Hilal will get bad results later.

Even though I was annoyed by losing my bet. But a draw is still a fairly fair result. And I was very entertained by Benzema in this match. In fact, I couldn't stop laughing after Benzema managed to score a goal into his own net. Benzema is in a position that is blocked by the opponent. And he didn't expect the ball to hit his head and bounce into his own team's goal. Two goals were created through headers and both were scored by the same player. I think this is a very funny coincidence.

Today Al-Nassr will compete against Damac. I hope CR7 doesn't do the same thing as Benzema did.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/24459889/neymar-fifa-compensation-al-hilal-injury/

The truth about neymar is this guy is only 25% playing for al hilal and 75% injury. It's not even worth to pay him worth 300 millions. Al hilal can get bunch of players rather than him at this moment. Brazillian FIFA shall have paid compensation toward al hilal.
Al hilal deserved it caused by there was also a rumor if neymar will be out for 9 months. 9 months are very long. Neymar got serious injury. This is the main reason why brazilian FIFA needs to pay compensation and paid his salary for al hilal.

I do support the decision from al hilal to sue brazillian FIFA. Al hilal never wanted it to happen. Al hilal was willing to see him play for the club and neymar is now going out for so many months. It's a disastrous for al hilal caused by the club paid him a lot.

If age was the issue, Ronaldo wouldn't be performing well either although of course age is a different burden for every player individually. But Benzema also has different troubles off the pitch, he had issues with the coach from the beginnings as it is said that he demanded to be the captain of the team whereas the coach said that he doesn't really want Benzema. That is what the rumors said. Benzema also frequently gets his headlines because he expresses religious debatable stuff publicly and he had some other problems going on as well. I think he doesn't have the same ego as Ronaldo. Ronaldo is a player who wants to score no matter what and no matter where he plays. He may not enjoy the SPL as much, but he wants to score. Benzema in contrast may not care as much at this point in his career.

Here we go. Another match day has already happened. Al hilal is still successfully defending its place by getting full points from khaleej while ittihad must be draw against taawoun which is also one of strong team in the saudi pro league.
Al hilal doesn't really need neymar to play caused by neymar was contributing nothing to the club when he played. Having mitrovic is one o the best transfer has ever made by al hilal. This guy is so crazy to scoring anytime.

al hilal is still leading the table right now with 26 points. Im sure the gap to the its competitors will be even bigger. Mitrovic is a key for al hilal to win the current season. Al hilal needs to make sure if he will not be injured.
It will enough to help hilal to win the trophy this season and beating nassr and ittihad for that. I never expected that mitrovic to play this good in saudi pro league. He has always become a pivot for al hilal to change the situation.

What a surprise from al hilal. Even thought the team was winning with pretty small score but im good with it. Winning is the only my target of the match between hilal vs khaleej.
Three points secured for hilal.

Getting older is clearly visible on the performance, however he isn't down. It looks like he hadn't got enough support to make goals. The competence with the present season is really high. The first position and the third position have got 6 points difference whereas difference between 3^rd and 4^th position is nil as the points were equal. With the 4^th and 5^th position there's one point difference.

This Karim Benzema we see in the Saudi League is not like the Benzama in Real Madrid and he is not even near to it. Benzama is getting old and he can't have good performance anymore. otherwise, a player like Benzema is a team like Al Ittihad to win the Saudi League title while there is currently a six-point gap between them and first place of the league.

Both teams played quite well in this match, in fact the two teams had quite balanced strengths, where both teams were fighting each other in buying and selling attacks in this match. Benzema is always a player who can be relied on in every match because in this match he was able to give al Ittihad an early lead through a goal he scored in the 22nd minute. But unfortunately he scored an own goal due to a header from a corner kick.

This draw does not change their position in the standings table because these two teams are currently ranked 2nd and 3rd. But for Al ittihad they have to wait for the results of the Al Nassr match against Damac because if Al nassr is able to get 3 points it could be Al nassr will move up to 3rd place this week.

Benzama scored one of his usual goals with a header. He scored his goal in the 22nd minute, it was clear from the previous events that he would score this goal. Then, Al Taawoun scored from a corner kick and the same header, and the goals were scored one after the other. There were many more goals that Karim Benzama could have scored, but he could not score the other goal.

Clearly, a bad result for both teams on the way to the championship is not a score that will please anyone. I guess it was a strange match as Karim Benzama played for both teams today, I don't understand

Al - Hilal even without playing with Neymar who is injured and will not play for many months, in other words he will not play this entire season, according to what I read, Neymar will have to spend between 6 and 8 months without playing, I don't know To what extent will this estimate be right, because after healing from the injury he will still have to train a lot to get in shape to accompany the team and knowing that the guy can't even play a whole season, so I won't be surprised if he after this injury get another one again after a few games. unfortunately he should end his career because we can already see that his health does not allow him to play frequently

but it's a fact that Al - Hilal will do well without him, because in my opinion I don't understand why this team spent a lot of money signing Neymar, they didn't even need to do that, it seems to me more like they wanted to monetize the team with advertising and That's why they brought Neymar, in any case the team will be paying a salary for many months to a player who won't even be playing, while other players who will be playing and helping the team win games receive a much lower salary than Neymar, when In this type of scenario, other players become unmotivated and bad results begin to appear. I think it would be good for the al - hilal management to take a good look at these issues

speaking, with the victory in today's game, al - hilal remains at the top of the table with 26 points, they are 7 points ahead of ronaldo's team, looking at this scenario, ronald's team will have to win the next games and I pray hard for the al - hilal team to lose in the next games. see that Ronaldo's chances of becoming champion this season are slim, he will probably retire without winning this league.

Al Hilal boss, Jorge Fernando Pinheiro de Jesus is tactical coach and experienced, what he need is patience to execute his crucial projects for the team. They're weigh stronger than most of the teams in SPL currently. The level of consistent good results is good, it will make games run smooth for the team who are aiming for SPL title this season. Al Hilal ranked first on the table, they're well equipped without the presence of Neymar Jr, they have proven to do more better in league games. Al Khaleej was weigh below the competitive strength of Al Hilal this season, losing 1 nil was considered good efforts pulled.