Ahli, Hilal clash in Crown Pince Cup Quarter Final

JEDDAH: All roads lead to Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium in Riyadh Wednesday when host Al-Hilal and Jeddah-based Al-Ahli face off in a potentially explosive match in the Crown Prince Cup quarterfinal.

Hilal reached the round of eight after defeating Najran 4-0 while Ahli defeated Hajr 4-2 on penalty kicks.

Hilal, the defending champion, defeated Ahli 2-1 in the final last year. Hilal is favored to prevail over Ahli and advance to the semifinal considering the overall poor performance of Ahli club this season.

Ahli has bowed of title contention in the Saudi league and is under heavy pressure from its army of fans to redeem itself in this competition. Still, Ahli enters the match with great optimism given the positive results the team achieved in the last league matches. Ahli can also take advantage of the absence of key players at Hilal. Ahli coach Milovan Rajevac said Hilal is an attacking team but he does not intend to play a defensive game but rather unleash Ahli’s own offense which will be built around a very strong attacking line of Marcinho, Wanderson, Malek Muaz and Victor Simoes.

Despite that Ahli fans are not optimistic about winning against Hilal following the team’s performance against Hajr in the Crown Prince Cup and against Najran in the Saudi league.

Hilal coach Gabriel Calderon is facing deep trouble especially with the absence of star midfielder Meriél Radoi, who was suspended for five games due to his bad behavior against Wehda club in a league match on Saturday, which ended 2-1 to Hilal. The coach also stands to lose the services of the injured star striker Yasser Al-Qahtani. This leaves him having to rely on Khaled Aziz and the Egyptian striker Ahmad Ali.

Al-Raid faces Wehda in the second quarterfinal match. Al-Raid qualified after defeating Al-Shabab 3-2 while Wehda went through after beating Al-Faisaly 4-2 on penalty kicks.