RIYADH: Visitors Al-Hilal defeated Al-Ettifaq in Dammam on Saturday afternoon to climb to second in the Saudi Pro League table as domestic football returns to the Kingdom following a week that saw the national team qualify to the 2026 World Cup.
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The 5-0 win reestablished Al-Hilal’s title pretensions and left them on 11 points from five matches. Al-Ettifaq remain in 10th with seven points from the same number of fixtures.
Marco Leonardo opened the scoring after only 15 minutes, finishing past Marek Rodak after some poor defending from the Ettifaq defenders following Al-Hilal rightback Hamad Al-Yami’s cross from the byline.
The lead was doubled on 39 minutes when Sergej Milinkovic-Savic disposed Duda in the middle of the park and found Malcolm and the right wing. The Brazilian in turn squared a simple pass to Darwin Nunez to score from close range. On the sideline Simone Inzaghi applauded another fine team goal.
