RIYADH: Al-Ittihad defeated Al-Hilal 3-1 in a penalty shootout on Tuesday to move into the semifinal of the King Cup after 120 minutes of action in Riyadh had ended 2-2.
Predrag Rajkovic was the hero for the Jeddah club, saving three of Al-Hilal’s penalty kicks.
The first half was an even affair, although it started badly for Al-Hilal with the Saudi Pro League’s top goalscorer Aleksandar Mitrovic leaving the pitch after 13 minutes with what seemed to be a hamstring injury.
Three minutes later, Al-Hilal almost took the lead but Salem Al-Dawsari’s shot from just inside the penalty area hit the foot of a post.
After 26 minutes, Karim Benzema started asking questions, forcing a good save from Yassine Bounou with a curling shot from outside the area.
The French striker had the ball in the net just before the break, shooting home after Bounou had got a hand to a low shot from N’Golo Kante, but he was ruled offside.
There was still time in the first half for Benzema to shoot tamely at the Moroccan goalkeeper from close range.
The former Real Madrid star finally broke the deadlock just after the hour, just moments after Malcom had hit the post for Al-Hilal. Benzema controlled a right-sided cross from Muhannad Al-Shanqiti and then fired home from close range.
Al-Hilal were back on level terms with 18 minutes remaining. The ball fell to Salem Al-Dawsari just inside the area and the 2022 Asian Player of the Year made no mistake to shoot past Rajkovic.
The game went into extra-time and after 101 minutes Al-Hilal moved ahead for the first time. Moteb Al-Harbi produced a perfect diagonal low cross from the left to find Marcos Leonardo at the far post and the Brazilian did the rest.
However, it did not take long for Benzema to equalize, sweeping the ball high into the net from close range to take the game to penalties.
A dismal effort from Al-Hilal followed from the spot as they scored just once.
Mohamed Kanno took the first, which was saved by Rajkovic, and when Benzema scored, Al-Ittihad were in the driving seat, especially as the Serbian goalkeeper also blocked Leonardo’s attempt.
Fabinho made it 2-0 to The Tigers and after Danilo Pereira scored to make it 3-1, Malcom had to hit the back of the net for the match to stay alive but Rajkovic saved once more.
Al-Ittihad and their traveling fans celebrated as they joined Al-Qadsiah, who defeated Al-Taawoun 3-0 earlier on Tuesday, in the last four. They join Al-Shabab and Al-Raed in the semis.

LONDON: Only twice in the history of the King Cup has a club from outside the Saudi Pro League made it to the competition’s final, with Al-Riyadh in 1978 and Al-Taawoun in 1990 doing so but suffering defeat at the last hurdle.

This year, Saudi First Division team Al-Jabalain is the unlikely outfit aiming to follow in those footsteps. Having already beaten professional league opposition in the first two rounds — Al-Fayha and then Al-Ettifaq — Jorge Mendonca’s players now face Al-Raed in the quarterfinals on Monday.

Al-Jabalain, currently seventh in the first division table — but just four points off the automatic promotion places — is the final second-tier side left standing in the 2024-2025 King Cup. Despite being the overwhelming underdogs, Swiss defender Leo Lacroix — scorer of the opening goal against Ettifaq in the last 16 — insists the pressure is off him and his teammates when they travel to Buraidah.

“We won our last league game (1-0 against Al-Jandal) and the team is feeling very confident,” Lacroix told Arab News in an exclusive interview. “We can’t wait to play the game and we know that, like the last rounds, we don’t have any pressure because normally the pro league team needs to win.

“I think it’s history for the club already to play a King’s Cup quarterfinal; to reach the semifinal will be something very massive for the players and for Al-Jabalain.”

When they faced Steven Gerrard’s Al-Ettifaq in the last 16 back in October, few gave Jabalain any chance of victory. Although Demarai Gray, Karl Toko Ekambi and Jack Hendry did not feature, Ettifaq still had an 11 stacked with Vitinha, Alvaro Medran, Gigi Wijnaldum, Seko Fofana and Joao Costa, while striker Moussa Dembele came off the bench.

But a spirited performance at their Prince Abdulaziz bin Musaed Sports City Stadium saw the team from Hail — in the Kingdom’s northwest — cause a major King Cup upset. Lacroix, the former Basel and Hamburg center-back, set Jabalain on their way with the game’s opening goal, before second-half strikes from Kaka Mendes and Saad Al-Selouli secured the historic victory.

“I think nobody except us believed that it was possible to win the game,” Lacroix said. “But the team was focused and ready to play a big match. On a personal level I really enjoyed this challenge because when I was playing in Basel, Hamburg, every weekend you had a big team with a top striker and you must be 100 percent focused.

“Obviously you see Steven Gerrard on the side of the pitch and then players like Moussa Dembele, who I played against when I was at Saint-Etienne and he was at Lyon. I love playing against these big strikers.”

Lacroix will have his hands full again on Monday, with Karim El-Berkaoui likely to be leading Al-Raed’s line. The Morocco forward has netted five goals in seven Saudi Pro League games this season, including one against reigning champions Al-Hilal last time out in December.

But this is nothing new for Lacroix, who has been required to mark some of the game’s best forwards during his career. He has also faced Neymar and Edinson Cavani at PSG and, most memorably, legendary Manchester City marksman Sergio Aguero.

Two years after helping FC Sion to a pair of creditable Europa League draws with Liverpool, Lacroix was on loan at FC Basel when the Swiss champions faced City in the 2017-2018 UEFA Champions League last 16. He played both legs of the tie, with the first ending in a 4-0 humbling but the second seeing Basel claim an impressive 2-1 win at the Etihad Stadium.

“I always wanted to play in a Champions League game and this was an amazing experience,” Lacroix said. “Just to listen to the music before the game was a big dream. Then you are playing against only big players: Aguero, (Ilkay) Gundogan, (Leroy) Sane, (Raheem) Sterling, (Kevin) De Bruyne, Fernandinho, (Vincent) Kompany.

“Aguero was of course challenging. With strikers like him, if you give them 10 cm they can do something that you have never seen before and score. You have to try to live in their mind and anticipate what they want to do but it is not easy.

“I will remember forever playing this game against a team that I think was the best in the Champions League, even though they didn’t go on to win it that year.”

With his extensive European experience — and the fact he speaks six languages — it is no surprise that Lacroix has emerged as a leader both in the Al-Jabalain dressing room and on the pitch for his Portuguese coach Mendonca. It is a responsibility that the defender relishes.

“I’m always talking with everyone and I don’t like it if you see a group of Saudi players and then a group of foreign players,” Lacroix said. “Any good team needs to feel this sense that you are a community together. When you do this in football you can achieve great things.

“I have really enjoyed working with the Saudi players. Guys like (midfielders) Eyad Madani and Abdulaziz Majrashi, and our striker Fahad (Al-Juhani) who really has such a great mentality. There is also our winger Khalil (Al-Habsi) — a player I think can have a really big career in Saudi Arabia or even outside.

“I want to help them but of course I can learn from them too and we can find solutions together.”

Lacroix and his teammates will certainly need to be united if they are to cause another King Cup upset on Monday, though with Al-Raed currently sitting 12th in the Saudi Pro League table it feels somewhat achievable for Al-Jabalain.

The center-back thinks his team has nothing to lose and hopes that another positive result can also help ignite a successful league promotion challenge.

“The great thing about football is that you never can say ‘this team is going to win for sure,’” Lacroix said. “Anything can happen and I think Monday we go there to play the best we can to make another special day for this club.

“I’m very glad to be here and hope in five months we can speak about promotion. We have shown in the Cup that we can compete with these teams and of course this is the goal.

“I think we are in good shape and I hope we can see that the players fight to make something historic for the club against Al-Raed. I am sure that if we can qualify for the semifinal, the people and other clubs in Saudi Arabia will start to see Al-Jabalain with different eyes.”