Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Al Majma’ah: Last year’s AFC Champions League runners-up Al Hilal twice surrendered the lead as the Riyadh giants were held to a 2-2 draw by Al Faisaly as the 2014/15 Saudi Professional League resumed on Wednesday following a brief hiatus for the Kingdom’s AFC Asian Cup campaign.
Salem Al Dawsari, one of eight Al Hilal players who were part of the Saudi Arabia side that was eliminated at the Group Stage of Australia 2015, opened the scoring in the 27th minute after being set up by international teammate and current AFC Player of the Year Nassir Al Shamrani before Abduleah Al Amer drew the home side level a minute before half-time.
Yousef Al Salem regained Al Hilal’s lead with 11 minutes Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz Sport City Stadium remaining only for Jordanian international Khalil Bani Ateyah, who was also returning to club duty after representing his country at the AFC Asian Cup, struck three minutes into second-half stoppage time to deny Al Hilal their eighth win of the current SPL season.
Al Hilal, who lost the 2014 ACL final 1-0 on aggregate to Western Sydney Wanderers, embark on their 11th AFC Champions League campaign on February 25 when they host Uzbekistan’s Lokomotiv Tashkent in their Group C curtain raiser at the King Fahd Stadium.
Photo: AFP