Abu Bakr seizes three precious points for victory... and Al Hilal continues chasing the top
Cameroonian Vincent Abubakar scored a killer goal in stoppage time to seize three valuable points for Al-Nassr with a difficult 2-1 victory over its guest Abha, while its local rivals Al Hilal won 2-0 at its guest Al-Hazm, bottom of the Saudi Professional League standings today, Saturday.
The last African Cup of Nations top scorer received a through pass from Uzbek substitute Jalaluddin Masharipov to hit Abha in the seventh minute of stoppage time.
Abu Bakr opened Al-Nasr's goals in the 36th minute with a shot from following a cross pass from Khaled Al-Ghannam, while Abha equalized through a shot from Serbian Urush Matic in the 69th minute from inside the penalty area after a back pass from Saleh Al-Omari.
Al-Nasr, the second-placed player, reduced the difference with the leaders Al-Ittihad to four points, after raising his score to 44 points from 22 matches, while Al-Ittihad will meet later today with its local rival Al-Ahly in a summit match.
Abha's balance froze at 28 points in sixth place.
In another match, Al Hilal scored two goals in the second half, through Andre Carrillo and Moussa Mariga, to win 2-0 against its guest Al-Hazm, while playing with ten players in stoppage time after Musab Al-Juwair was sent off.
Al Hilal raised its score to 37 points from 19 games in fourth place, achieving its second consecutive victory with its new coach, Argentine Ramon Diaz.
And the balance of Al-Hazm remained 14 points at the bottom of the standings.
Earlier, Sergio Vitor scored a goal in stoppage time to snatch a 3-2 victory for Dachk Al-Raed in a match that witnessed two expulsions and a wasted penalty kick.
Mansour Hamzi put Damak in the lead with a shot from close range after following a ball that rebounded from the defense in the 27th minute, but three minutes later Damak played incomplete after his Croatian player Domagoj Antolic was sent off.
Al-Raed took advantage of the numerical shortage in Dhamk's ranks and equalized through Eder Lopez in the 36th minute of following up a cross pass.
Despite the numerical shortage, Algerian Hilal Soudani put Dhamk back three minutes later with a header after a cross pass from a corner kick.
Moroccan Karim El-Barkaoui missed a penalty kick for Al-Raed in stoppage time for the first half, but he compensated for it by scoring the equalizer in the first minute of the second half with a close-range shot after a wonderful through ball from Eder that made El-Barkaoui in a solitary position with Dhamk goalkeeper Mustafa Zaghba.
Argentinian Vitor scored the winning goal for your club in the fifth minute of stoppage time with a free kick, one minute after Al-Raed player Rene Santos was sent off.
Damak maintained its fifth position with 36 points from 22 matches, after achieving its tenth victory in the competition and the second in a row with the same result, while Al-Raed's balance froze at 26 points in eighth place.
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