Al Khaleej stun Al Hilal in five-goal thriller | OneFootball

A third consecutive brace from forward Abdullah Al Salam and a late tap-in from veteran Fabio Martins secured a famous victory for Al Khaleej at the expense of defending champions Al Hilal at Prince Mohammed bin Fahd Stadium on Saturday.

Led by former Al Hilal boss Georgios Donis, high-flying Al Khaleej became the first team to defeat Al Hilal in the Roshn Saudi League since May 2022, back when the four-time continental champions lost to Al Adalah at the end of the 2022-23 season. Since then, Al Hilal went on a 46-match unbeaten run in the league in a period that saw them reach a world-record 34 consecutive wins in all competitions.

A decade after managing the capital club to the AFC Champions League final, Donis delivered the seemingly impossible task with an Al Khaleej side that had managed to collect only one point from 14 previous RSL encounters against Al Hilal.

In front of 17,150 fans in Dammam, it looked like yet another routine victory for the league's frontrunners, who had won nine of their 10 matches in the 2024-25 RSL, when they took the lead inside 12 minutes. It was winger Marcos Leonardo who took advantage of a defensive mistake to put his side in front.

Sergej Milinkovic-Savic dispossessed Al Khaleej’s defensive midfielder Khalid Al Sumairi deep into his own half and fed the ball to Leonardo, who applied a composed finish with his left into the back of the net.

The visitors’ lead was doubled in the 37th minute when skipper Salem Al Dawsari, returning from an injury, whipped a cross from the corner towards the near post, where it was met by a powerful Aleksandar Mitrovic header. The former Fulham man extended his lead as this season's top scorer in the RSL with his 12th goal of the campaign.

All seemed to be going Al Hilal’s way heading into the break, however the turning point came right on half-time when Kalidou Koulibaly tripped left-back Pedro Rebocho inside the Al Hilal penalty area, prompting the referee to point to the spot. Konstantinos Fortounis' resultant spot-kick was saved by goalkeeper Yassine Bono, but the ball fell to Al Salem, who swept home to give Al Khaleej a glimmer of hope.

The yellow and greens picked up right where they left off after the restart and Al Salem was once more the hero. Already the highest-scoring Saudi player in this season's RSL, the 31-year-old secured his third consecutive double and his seventh of the campaign after receiving Khaled Narey’s pass two minutes into the second half.

Al Salem finished with aplomb to bring the game level - and draw himself alongside Al Nassr's Cristiano Ronaldo in joint-third in the 2024-25 scoring charts.

Al Khaleej’s incredible comeback then was sealed in the 85th minute thanks to another Narey assist. The Togolese winger broke free and squared for Fabio Martins, who was left with the simplest of tasks, tapping in from eight yards to the jubilation of the home crowd and the stunned looks of Al Hilal players and staff.

A club-record fourth consecutive win keeps Al Khaleej in sixth place with 19 points, ahead of Al Ahli and only three points behind Al Nassr in third, Al Shabab in fourth and their next opponents, Al Qadsiah in fifth.

Meanwhile, Al Hilal’s first league defeat in 551 days means they could lose top spot to Al Ittihad if Karim Benzema and Co manage to defeat bottom-of-the-table Al Fateh on Sunday evening.