Al-Ittihad tightened its grip at the top of the Saudi Professional League with a comprehensive 3-0 win over visitors Al-Nassr in the 20th round of the season at King Abdullah Sports City Stadium in Jeddah.
The match was played behind closed doors as the home team was serving a ban for disciplinary reasons.
The Brazilian Romarinho opened the scoring in the sixth minute from the penalty spot, and Abdelaziz Al-Bishi added the second on 30 minutes. After the break, Al-Nassr lost Anderson Talisca when he earned a red card. The league leaders then confirmed their superiority with their Moroccan signing, the ex-Al-Nassr star Abderrazak Hamdallah, netting a third goal on 69 minutes.
The win raised Al-Ittihad’s tally to 47 points at the top of the SPL table, widening its lead over second-placed Al-Shabab to seven points, while Al-Nassr remain on 38 points in third place.
Hamdallah has now found the net against 20 teams in the league, having scored a total of 80 goals, 77 for Al-Nassr and three for Al-Ittihad.
The Brazilian Talisca described his sending off as a “disaster,” something he had never experienced before throughout his career.
After the Al-Nassr playmaker received his marching orders from Spanish referee Jesus Manzano, Talisca posted a message on Instagram sarcastically expressing his displeasure with the referee’s performance.
“First I want to congratulate my teammates who fought until the end, we played a great game! and I also wanted to congratulate the referee of the match, he played a great game,” he wrote.
“A disaster first for the penalty and second for my expulsion. Disaster it was clear that we played against everything and everyone.”