Al Hilal are Saudi Arabia's most successful club side having won the Asian Champions League in 2002 and the Saudi Professional League for the past two years. They were coached by former Germany international Thomas Doll... until he was sacked yesterday, even though Al Hilal are in a less than disgraceful fourth in the league.
Doll's replacement at least on a temporary basis, is the former Czech Republic midfielder Ivan Hasek who has a long managerial career including spells at Sparta Prague, St. Etienne and the Czech national team.
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| The Hilal Ultras |
The atmosphere in the ground was almost English. The fans sang a lot and saved particular scorn for one Nasr player who presumably had been an ex Hilal team member.
The match was only 3 minutes old when the lively Yoo Byung Soo scored following an error by the Nasr keeper. A second came from a penalty after the same player was hauled down by the goalkeeper. A third followed almost from the restart and Hilal went in at half time 3-0 up.
The second half was a bit more subdued as Nasr failed to convert two good chances. Soo scored his second and Nasr only got a consolation goal when Hilal lost concentration with about 20 minutes remaining. Final score Al Hilal 4 Al Nasr 1 and Hilal are throught to round three.
All in all it wasn't a bad match probably equal in quality to English League 2 and I'll certainly be going back to see another game soon.
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| Yoo Byung Soo scores his second and Hilal's fourth |
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