Al Hilal wins the 28th match in a row and breaks record – 03/12/2024 – Sport

Saudi Al Hilal, owned by Jorge Jesus and Neymar, achieved this Tuesday (12) the world record for consecutive victories in football, with 28 victories in a row.

The record came after a 2-0 victory against Al Ittihad, owned by Romarinho and Marcelo Gallardo, in the second leg of the quarter-finals of the Asian Champions League, at the King Abdullah Sports City stadium, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. .

The first goal of the match was scored by Saudi defender Al-Shahrani, 15 minutes into the second half. In stoppage time, Brazilian Malcom received a free kick at the edge of the area and expanded.

With the victory, Al Hilal isolated themselves as the record holder for consecutive victories in professional football, overtaking the Welsh team The New Saints, who reached the mark of 27 games in the 2016/17 season.

In amateur football, there have been teams that achieved even greater streaks, such as Sparta Prague, from the Czech Republic, which achieved 58 consecutive victories in the 1920s, in the early days of the then Czechoslovak Championship. Already in the era of professionalism, the Saudi team established itself this Tuesday as the owner of the longest winning streak.

Al Hilal’s current winning streak began on September 25 last year, when the team beat Al Jabalain 1-0 in the Saudi King Cup. In total, there were 16 victories in the Saudi Championship, nine in the Asian Champions League and three in the King’s Cup. The trajectory includes 9-0 defeats against Al-Hazm and 7-0 against Abha Club, for Saudi.

Although Saudi football does not have the same tradition compared to the big leagues in Europe, the arrival of players who played for big European clubs changed local football, in the opinion of Portuguese coach Jorge Jesus. According to the Portuguese player, elected in March as the best coach in the Saudi league for the fourth time in a row, the level of the local tournament is now above the level of football played in Portugal.

“I don’t want to make comparisons, but if we think about it a little, it’s easy to see. The quality of the players on teams here in Saudi, like Al-Ittihad, Al Hilal, Al Nassr or Al-Ahli, cost millions. Nor are there possible comparison with Portugal. Only those who don’t follow the Saudi championship don’t understand the differences between the teams. If the great players who were in Europe are now here, the teams here are necessarily better”, declared Jesus to the Portuguese publication Record after the victory against Al-Ettifaq in February which represented the 24th consecutive victory.

The presence of the multi-champion coach with Flamengo on the Al Hilal bench is cited as one of the reasons for the winning streak.

Jorge Jesus showed during his time in the red and black a unique ability to adapt to a context very different from the European one, says Thiago Freitas, director of operations at Roc Nation Sports in Brazil, the company responsible for managing the careers of players such as Vinicius Junior, Endrick and Lucas Paquetá.

In Saudi Arabia, as was the case in Brazil, the coach managed to adjust the athletes’ conduct to implement a more balanced game model than the previous one, with an offensive system that scores goals combined with defensive solidity — following 28 victories, the The team scored 77 goals and only conceded seven,” says Freitas. “He is largely responsible for this incredible sequence,” says the director of Roc Nation.

The fact that it was the Saudi team that, by far, spent the most in the last transfer window on reinforcements for the squad also weighs in favor of Al Hilal’s current phase.

In addition to Neymar, Al Hilal reinforced the squad with names such as Serbian Aleksandar Mitrovic and Sergej Milinković-Savić, coming from Fulham and Lazio, respectively, in addition to Brazilian Malcom, signed from Zenit in Russia.

Senegalese defender Kalidou Koulibaly, ex-Barcelona, ​​Moroccan goalkeeper Bono, who played for Sevilla, and left-back Renan Lodi, ex-Olympique de Marseille, also arrived.

In total, the biggest Saudi champion, with 18 titles, spent around 376 million euros in last season’s signing window, or around R$2 billion, according to data from the specialized website Transfermarkt. Neymar was the most expensive signing, coming from PSG (Paris Saint-Germain) for 45 million euros (R$244 million).

Without being able to count on the star of the Brazilian national team, who has been out of action since October last year and participated in just two games of the current winning streak, Al Hilal has taken advantage of Mitrovic’s good form to emerge in the leadership of the Saudi with 65 points, 12 ahead of second place. The Serbian is the competition’s second top scorer, with 20 goals in 20 matches.

The competition’s top scorer comes from the Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo, who scored 22 goals in 21 matches so far, guaranteeing Al Nassr, led by coach Luis Castro, formerly of Botafogo, second place in the league table, with 53 points.

Al Nassr’s expenses to reinforce the squad were significantly lower than Al Hilal’s, totaling around 165 million euros (R$897 million).

In addition to the free arrival of Ronaldo, who had terminated his contract with Manchester United, the biggest expenses were the arrival of Senegalese Sadio Mané (20 million euros; R$ 109 million), ex-Bayern Munich, and midfielder Brazilian naturalized Portuguese Otávio (30 million euros; R$163 million), formerly of Porto, as well as defender Aymeric Laporte (25 million euros; R$136 million), coming from Manchester City.

On Monday (11), Al Nassr lost to Al-Ain, from the United Arab Emirates, in a penalty shootout, and was eliminated from the Champions League. Cristiano Ronaldo was heavily criticized by the country’s media for a clear wasted chance in the second half and for his lackluster performance throughout the match. Al-Ain, coached by Argentine Hernán Crespo, will be Al Hilal’s opponent in the semi-finals of the Asian Champions League.

Third and fourth placed in the Saudi league, Al Ahli and Al Ittihad spent 184 million euros (R$1 billion) and 124 million euros (R$674 million), respectively, in the last transfer window. The main signings of the two teams, however, have not yet managed to respond on the field.

Former Liverpool player Roberto Firmino of Al Ahli scored just six goals in 21 games. Already the winner of the Ballon d’Or award in 2022, Karim Benzema, coming from Real Madrid, scored nine goals in 17 matches. The Frenchman did not play this Tuesday due to back pain. In the wake of the lack of goals, both live with rumors about possible dissatisfaction at the clubs and the desire to be traded.