The King’s Cup

The first Al-Ittihad football team qualified for the semi-finals of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Cup after defeating its counterpart Al-Fayhaa, “the defending champion”, with a penalty shootout “4-3”, after they tied “1-1” in the regular and extra time of the match that took place on Monday, at Al Majmaah City Stadium. sports in the quarter-finals.
With this result, the Al-Jeddawi team took revenge on Al-Fayhaa, who eliminated it from the semi-finals of the tournament in its previous version, before it was crowned with the title. Saudi Arabia, and the second “2-0” during the Saudi Super Cup final.
The Al-Ittihad team owes qualification to Brazilian goalkeeper Marcelo Grohe, who assumed the championship role by saving two penalties after the match extended to two additional halves, to wait for the winning team from the Al-Hilal and Al-Fateh meeting, on Tuesday, to meet him in the semi-finals.
The match began with offensive pressure from Al-Fayhaa, and its players threatened the Al-Ittihad team’s goal more than once, most notably a shot from Sultan Mandesh, who dodged Zakaria Hawsawi and Ahmed Hegazy, penetrated into the penalty area, and hit a powerful ball that hit the outside net «6».
Contrary to the course of the meeting, Al-Ittihad surprised its guest with a goal through Haroun Kamara after he received a long pass from the Brazilian Coronado, and then he was alone in the goal and hit the ball powerfully to the left of the Serbian goalkeeper Vladimir Stojkovic (16).
Al-Fayhaa almost equalized after Nigerian Anthony Nwakaimi managed to score against the visitors after exchanging passes inside the penalty area, but the referee canceled it because Sultan Mendesh was in an offside position the moment he passed the ball to the Nigerian striker «24».
The Al-Ittihad team received a painful blow at the “28th” minute, after the Brazilian Romarinho suffered an injury, as a result of which he did not complete the match, and was replaced by Abdul Rahman Al-Aboud.
The Portuguese Ricardo Reller, the Al-Fayhaa player, returned the match to the starting point before the end of the first half, when he succeeded in scoring the equalizing goal with a shot on two occasions. .
The two teams exchanged attacks in the second half, without one of them being able to score the other’s net, to rule on two additional halves that did not witness anything new, and after them the penalty kicks that smiled at the federations.