Jorge Jesus’ Al Hilal secured their 27th win in a row on Friday, equaling the New Saints’ 2016/17 world record with a 3-1 win over Riyadh to take the lead in Saudi Arabia. football league.
In the match of the 23rd round of the competition, the Saudi Arabian national team made history, maintaining the cycle of triumphs that it has maintained since September 25, 2023, between the championship (16 matches), the Asian Champions League (eight) and the Saudi Champions League. Arabian Cup (three).
However, Jorge Jesus’ side found it difficult to match Wales’ seven-year-old record as they went down with an own goal from Ali Al Bulaikha in the 52nd minute after a first half with plenty of setbacks. including Serbian Aleksandar Mitrovic’s penalty – 45+8.
Ruben Neves’ introduction in the 60th minute proved decisive, with the Portuguese midfielder equalizing from the penalty spot in the 67th minute and providing the assist for the comeback goal led by Brazilian Michael in goal. 75th minute.
Mitrovic, with a score of 90+3, also on maximum penalty, finished the final 3-1, while Al Hilal, who has 21 wins and two draws in the competition, now has 12 points more than Al Nasr, owned by Luis Castro, Cristiano . Ronaldo and Otavio lost 3-1 at home to Al Raed in the match played on Thursday.
The winning streak began in September
Jorge Jesus’ 11 men will now hope to remain alone with the world record for most consecutive wins, which will happen if they add their 28th in the second leg of their Asian Champions League quarter-final on Tuesday at Al Ittihad.
Al-Hilal, who had not known what it was like to not win after the 1-1 draw with Damak on September 21, 2023 in the seventh round of the Saudi Arabian Championship, began the run four days after that draw with a Cup triumph.
On 25 September 2023, in the round of 16 match, Riyadh won 1-0 against Al Jabalain thanks to Ruben Neves’ only goal in the 64th minute.
Another 26 wins followed, three more indirect and 23 by two or more goals, the toughest in Iran, against Sepahan for the Asian “champions” as the game went to 90 minutes with the score 1–1, resulting in two goals in the match. added time from Mitrovic (90+4 minutes) and Abdullah Al-Hamdan (90+7).
Also notable, given the volume, are 9-0 away against Al Hazem and 7-0 at home against Abha, both in the league, and 6-0 against Mumbai City in the Champions League.
This cycle also saw Al-Hilal beat rivals Al-Nasr 3-0 in the 15th round of the championship on December 1, 2023, with Serbian goals from Sergej Milinkovic-Savic (one) and Mitrovic (two).
Previous record holders
Friday’s triumph over Al Riyadh saw Jorge Jesus’ side move into third place in the table against Dutch side Ajax, who had won 26 in a row in the 1971/72 season in a team that was brimming with genius. Cruyff.
The Amsterdam team went down in history with their “total football”, which, under the command of the Romanian “wizard” Stefan Kovac and “pushed” by Cruyff’s 33 goals, won the European Cup, as well as the Dutch championship and cup.
The Amsterdam side’s record lasted until the 2016/17 season, in which the New Saints won 27 consecutive games between 14 August and 30 December 2016 across the Championship, League Cup, Challenge Cup and Welsh Cup.
That record was broken by Al Hilal this Friday, but The New Saints are also looking to reach a new high as they currently have 24 wins in a row and could add their 25th to that this Friday.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
I’m Dave Martin, and I’m an experienced journalist working in the news industry. As a part of my work, I write for 24 News Reporters, covering mostly sports-related topics. With more than 5 years of experience as a journalist, I have written numerous articles on various topics to provide accurate information to readers.