KHOBAR: A late Tijjani Reijnders winner, a penalty miss by Cristiano Ronaldo and the return of a goal-hungry George Ilenikhena — on Tuesday, some of the Saudi Pro League’s main title contenders were made to fight for every point as the table continues to take shape.
Al-Ittihad were looking to get their season back on track after a 3-2 defeat by Al-Hilal in the Saudi El Clasico on Oct. 10, followed by a postponed fixture against Al-Shabab. George Ilenikhena did not feature in the loss to Al-Hilal, and he showed his value when he fired Al-Ittihad into the lead against home side Al-Ettifaq after just 16 minutes.
Houssem Aouar, Georginio Wijnaldum and Richard Rios combined down the right side before the Colombian fed the ball to Ilenikhena with a slick backheel, and the striker made no mistake.
Al-Ittihad looked comfortable for the most part, although Al-Ettifaq manager Arthur Papas did challenge his former J.League rival, Jens Wissing, with a high-pressing 5-3-2 formation that often managed to keep the Tigers at bay.
However, clear-cut chances were hard to come by for Al-Ettifaq, with their best dribblers — Khalid Al-Ghannam and Bersant Celina — on the bench, and Jordan Larsson, Alvaro Medran and Rayane Messi also absent from the squad.
That put the onus on young Saudi striker Sultan Harun, filling in for Mousa Dembele. In the 14th minute, a low cross picked him out at the far post, only for his follow-up to drift wide. Twenty minutes later, however, he made amends.
Al-Ettifaq right-back Radhi Al-Otaibi noticed Harun sneaking into the space between Al-Ittihad center-backs Saad Al-Mousa and Danilo Pereira, and slipped a pass through to the striker who delivered a first-time finish that put the ball between goalkeeper Predrag Rajkovic’s legs for the equalizer.
Ilenikhena was not about to take that lying down, however. In the 53rd minute, the ball was slipped through the Al-Ettifaq defense to him, he used his body effectively to shield it, then turned and squared to an onrushing Aouar, who restored the lead.
It was an especially unfortunate turn of events for Al-Ettifaq, as they had just missed a sitter of their own when Bersant Celina attempted a cross-goal pass to set Matija Gluscevic up in front of an open net, only for the effort to miss both Gluscevic and the net.
Youssef En-Nesyri replaced Ilenikhena shortly after the second goal, and there was some anxiety among Al-Ittihad’s fans when the Moroccan striker’s follow-up to a Marek Rodak save of an Aouar shot went soaring over the bar.
Redemption followed just moments later, however, when Muhannad Al-Shanqeeti set up En-Nesyri, who extended the lead to 3-1 and then, five minutes later, completed his brace with a calm finish to make the final score 4-1.
In Riyadh, Al-Nassr were one of two title contenders made to sweat on the day. After a Cristiano Ronaldo penalty attempt went wide on the stroke of half-time with the game against visiting Neom still goalless, nerves set in among fans mindful of the fact that anything but a victory would leave them more than three points adrift of league leaders Al-Qadsiah, albeit with a game in hand.
Fortunately for Ange Postecoglou’s men, SPL 2025/26 player of the season Joao Felix came through for them when he answered Ronaldo’s miss with a powerful finish after Angelo set him up in the 61st minute. It was to be the only goal of the game.
Perhaps the biggest relief of the day for any team, however, came when Reijnders scored what might end up being one of Al-Qadsiah’s most important goals of the season. With seconds remaining against home side Al-Taawoun and the score still locked at 0-0, the Dutch international finally broke the deadlock in the sixth minute of added time with a clinical strike into the bottom corner.
The last-minute, 1-0 victory moved Al-Qadsiah a point clear of Al-Hilal at the top of the table. Al-Hilal had grabbed a late winner of their own against Al-Hazem on Monday, courtesy of Gabriel Martinelli, and have a game in hand.
All eyes now will be on a mouth-watering SPL clash between the top two in Dammam on Friday; Al-Hilal have not beaten Al-Qadsiah at Prince Mohammed bin Fahad Stadium since the Eastern Province side won promotion to the top flight in 2024.
In the day’s other game, Diriyah claimed their fourth win of the season thanks to a single Oscar Rodriguez goal against Al-Riyadh.