Fresh off the back of a quarter-final exit from the King's Cup, Al-Hilal return to action in the Professional League when they visit the Al Jouf University Sports Stadium to face Al Orubah on Saturday.
This will be the first meeting between the two sides since February 2015, when the hosts secured a 1-0 victory over the Blue Waves on home turf courtesy of a second-half penalty from Musaed Neda.
Match preview
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Al Orubah were sent crashing back down to earth in their final outing of 2024 as they suffered a 1-0 defeat against 10-man Al-Riyadh when the two sides squared off at the Al Jouf University Sports Stadium on December 6.
Despite being at a numerical disadvantage for most of the game after Ahmad Asiri picked up a 29th-minute red card, Al-Riyadh secured their sixth league win of the campaign courtesy of a late strike from 31-year-old midfielder Toze.
Prior to that, Al Orubah snapped their run of four back-to-back defeats on November 28, when they snatched a 1-0 victory over Al Fayha thanks to a 90th-minute effort from Ghanian forward Emmanuel Boateng.
Having secured a second-placed finish in the First Division table last season to end their 10-year absence from the Professional League, it had been a difficult return to the top flight for Alvaro Pacheco's men who find themselves scrambling for points in the bottom half of the table.
The Sakakah-based outfit have lost eight of their 13 league matches this season while claiming four wins and one draw to collect 13 points and sit 13th in the standings, just three points above the relegation zone.
On the other hand, Al-Hilal's dreams of securing a third consecutive King's Cup title came to an end in their first outing of the new year as they suffered a penalty-shooting defeat against Al-Ittihad on Tuesday.
Karim Benzema struck twice at the Kingdom Arena, including a 114th-minute equaliser to take the tie to penalties after Salem Al-Dawsari and Marcos Leonardo netted to put the hosts in front, before Al-Ittihad picked up a 3-1 win in the shootout.
Prior to that, Al-Hilal were on a three-game winning streak, picking up league victories over Al-Shabab and Al-Raed on either side of a 3-0 win over Qatar outfit Al-Gharafa in the AFC Champions League, where they are currently first in the Western Division table with 16 points from six games.
Jorge Jesus's men now turn their focus to the Professional League, where they are unbeaten in all but one of their 13 matches this season and will be looking to continue their hot pursuit of league leaders Al-Ittihad.
The Blue Waves have picked up 11 wins and one draw from their 13 games to collect 34 points and to sit second in the standings, six points above Al-Nassr in third-place and two adrift of Al-Ittihad at the top of the pile.
Al-Hilal will be backing themselves to return to winning ways this weekend as they visit the Al Jouf University Sports Stadium, where Al Orubah have lost each of their most recent three matches, conceding six and failing to find the back of the net since claiming consecutive wins over Al-Fateh and Damac in September.
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Team News
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Al-Orubah remain without the services of Ivory Coast international Jean Michael Seri, who has missed each of the last seven games since picking up a muscle injury while on international duty against Sierra Leone back in October.
Johann Gudmundsson has been ruled out since coming off with a first-half injury against Al-Fayha back in November and the former Burnley man will play no part in this weekend's matchup.
As for Al-Hilal, veteran striker Aleksandar Mitrovic was forced off with a hamstring injury just 13 minutes into the cup tie against Al-Ittihad last time out and the 30-year-old is out of contention for Saturday's clash.
Neymar continues his journey to full fitness, with his last appearance coming in a 30-minute cameo back in November, while Yasser Al-Shahrani and Salem Al-Dawsari are recuperating from cruciate ligament and muscle injuries respectively.
Having missed 10 straight games through a tendon injury, Ruben Neves returned to action in the cup defeat against Al-Ittihad last time out and the 27-year-old should retain his role in the Al-Hilal XI this weekend.
Al Orubah possible starting lineup:
Coucke; Al-Maghati, Kandouss, Zouma, Al-Showaish, Al Zubaidi; F Zubaidi, Al-Qarni, Muhar, Tello; Boateng
Al-Hilal possible starting lineup:
Bono; Cancelo, Koulibaly, Albulayhi, Lodi; Neves, Milinkovic-Savic; Malcom, Al-Hamdan, N Al-Dawsari; Leonardo
We say: Al Orubah 0-2 Al-Hilal
Still licking their wounds from their King's Cup exit, Al-Hilal will head into the weekend looking to climb into first-place in the league standings and restore some pride. While Jesus' side have suffered a few injury setbacks of late, they boast the firepower needed to get the job done and we are tipping them to come away with a comfortable victory.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Joshua Ojele
