Arab News | 5 takeaways from Matchday 12 of the Saudi Pro League

LONDON: The latest round of Saudi Pro League action saw Al-Qadsiah go top before being leapfrogged by Al-Hilal. Meanwhile, Cristiano Ronaldo is getting closer to that 1,000-goal mark. Here are five things we learned from Matchday 12 of the SPL.

1—Ronaldo takes the headlines, but don’t forget Felix

An early offside goal, that looked very marginal, seemed to motivate Cristiano Ronaldo, and he went on to score a hat trick as Al-Nassr defeated Al-Kholood 5-3 in an exciting game. 

As surely everyone in football knows, he has scored 985 goals so far, and the big number is getting closer. It was his 11th perfect hat trick—defined as a goal with both feet and the head—which is another amazing statistic in his career. 

There was another one, this time regarding Joao Felix. Ronaldo’s fellow Portuguese international (and it seems that both will be called up for the November window) ran the game. 

So much so that Felix recorded four assists, becoming just the second player to do so since SPL records started, following Moussa Diaby in 2024 for Al-Ittihad against Al-Wehda. Felix now has eight assists and three league goals in nine appearances this season.

2—Scary Halloween for Al-Ahli coach Pusic

It seemed that Al-Ahli had turned a corner after an indifferent start, but then the Greens collapsed to a 6-1 defeat at Al-Shabab, not helped by an early red card for goalkeeper Abdulrahman Al-Sanbi. 

After four wins in the league, coach Marino Pusic had removed much of the pressure that had been gathering, but it is now back. The tension was there for all to see after the game when the boss apologized to fans and then told a journalist that they should be ashamed of asking whether this game would be his last in charge—that’s never a good sign.

Being without Ivan Toney, the England striker appearing at a London court during the week on an assault charge, was a blow, and fans will be hoping that Toney, who already has 13 league goals to his name, will be back soon. Whether Pusic is around then remains to be seen.

3—Al-Hilal reap benefits of Asian rotation

Al-Hilal defeated a stubborn Al-Fateh 2-0 to make it five wins in a row and end October in the top spot. Ollie Watkins returned to fire home the opener, and there was Ruben Neves, also rested, to seal the win from the spot. 

It came just four days after a 3-1 loss against Qatar’s Al-Shamal in the AFC Champions League Elite.

Coach Simone Inzaghi rolled the dice in resting many of his big stars on the road and paid the price. The Italian knows that all he has to do in Asia is finish in the top eight of a 16-team group and advance to the knockout stages when the action really starts. He feels, quite rightly, that he can afford to lose a game or two or even three or four in Asia and still go through. 

What he can’t afford to do with Al-Nassr, Al-Qadsiah and Al-Ittihad breathing down his club’s neck is to lose games at home. The competition is so intense that a defeat or two can be costly, even at this stage of the season. 

4—Al-Qadsiah roar back into action 

What is the best way to bounce back from a defeat against your title rivals? Winning your next game 6-0 is as good as it gets. Al-Qadsiah went on the road to thrash Al-Riyadh to stay just two points behind the leaders.

While the headlines will go elsewhere with hat tricks for Ronaldo and Yannick Carrasco and Felix’s quartet of assists, Tijjani Reijnders also bagged three. The Dutch midfielder has been hugely impressive since arriving from Manchester City in the summer and now has eight goals in 10 games so far.

When you have strikers such as Mateo Retegui and Julian Quinones as well, there is no reason why the Eastern Knights can’t go all the way—though perhaps not having the experience in Asia of some of their title rivals may complicate matters going forward.

5—Hamdallah still banging them in

There has not been much to shout about for Al-Taawoun this season, but the 1-1 draw with Al-Ettifaq was a decent result, even if it left the hosts still in the relegation zone without a win in 12 games. 

Abderrazak Hamdallah got the only goal of the game for Al-Taawoun, and while it didn’t produce the long-awaited win for the team, it brought the Moroccan marksman closer to a personal milestone. The 35-year-old has now scored 160 goals in the league, just one behind the record-breaker Omar Al-Somah and in 35 games fewer at 187.

That is an amazing achievement, and if Al-Taawoun are going to stay up this season, feeding Hamdallah may just be their best bet for both team and player.