Weather of Arabia - Al Hilal was crowned with the "Super Lusail" Cup after beating Zamalek 4-1 on penalties in the confrontation that brought together the champions of Saudi Arabia and Egypt - Friday - at Lusail Stadium, which will host the FIFA World Cup final in Qatar.
Among more than 77,000 fans, the two teams competed in a match that announced the official opening of the Lusail Stadium, which will host the World Cup final in Qatar on December 18, corresponding to the National Day of the first Arab country to host the World Cup.
The original time of the Arab summit ended with a 1-1 draw, as the Asian champions opened the scoring with Nigerian Odion Ighalo's goal with a skillful shot over goalkeeper Mohamed Awad in the absence of supervision in the 18th minute.
Ahmed Mostafa Sayed (Zizou) equalized from a follow-up to Seif El-Din Al-Jaziri's shot that was mistakenly countered by goalkeeper Abdullah Al-Mayouf in the 33rd minute.
In the penalty shootout, Al Hilal scored Odion Ighalo, Salem Al Dossary, Luciano Vieto and Andre Carrillo.
While Mohamed Ashraf Roqa scored for Zamalek in the penalty shootout, Ahmed Sayed Zizou and Mahmoud Hamdi Al-Wansh missed.
Abdullah Al-Mayouf won the award for the best player in the match, for saving the penalty kick that crowned Al Hilal with the Super Lusail title.
Zamalek participated in the match as the Egyptian League champion, while Al Hilal participated as the Saudi League champion.
The match of the Crescent Lost Chances
Al Hilal was the most dangerous during most of the match and the brilliance of Zamalek goalkeeper Mohamed Awad prevented him from adding more goals.
The start of the match came quickly from both sides, and Al Hilal quickly imposed its control over the course of the meeting and continued its offensive attempts in search of scoring the goal of progress. On the other hand, Zamalek retreated to its midfield and relied on counter-attacks whenever it had the opportunity.
Moussa Marega almost opened the scoring for Hilal in the sixth minute, when a free kick hit the human wall to reach Marega inside the penalty area, where he hit a powerful ball that Zamalek goalkeeper Mohamed Awad narrowly turned into a corner kick that was not used.
The successive attacks of Al Hilal resulted in scoring the goal in the 18th minute, when Cuellar passed a ball behind the defenders, which was received by Odion Ighalo on the edge of the penalty area, where he hinted that Awad advanced from his goal to play it over the goalkeeper into the goal.
After the goal, Zamalek gave up a little defensive caution and Al Hilal exchanged attacks, but they failed to pose any danger to each other's goal, so play was limited to the midfield.
Play remained confined to the center of the field until the 29th minute, which saw Al Hilal player Salman Al-Faraj shoot a powerful ball from outside the penalty area, which was narrowly blocked by Muhammad Awad.
In the 33rd minute, Zamalek scored the equalizer when Seif Al-Din Al-Jaziri received a ball behind the defenders of Al-Hilal, to enter the penalty area from the left side and hit a powerful ground ball that was blocked by Abdullah Al-Mayouf, Al-Hilal goalkeeper, to bounce back to Ahmed Sayed Zizou, who put it in the goal.
The two teams tried to score the advance goal before the end of the first half, but they failed to pose any danger to each other's goal, limiting the play to the midfield, until the first minute of stoppage time when Moussa Marega singled out goalkeeper Awad, who starred and blocked Marega's shot.
And the remaining time of the first half passed without a new one, before the referee blew his final whistle with a 1-1 draw.
With the beginning of the second half, Zamalek imposed control over the course of the match and took possession of the ball, but it quickly retreated after Al Hilal players regained their activity and imposed their control over the course of the meeting.
Despite the offensive attempts, the two teams failed to pose any danger to the goals.
Playing in the middle of the field remained until the 67th minute, which witnessed a dangerous opportunity for Al Hilal, when Saud Abdul Hamid penetrated the ball from the right side, and entered the penalty area before passing it to Salem Al-Dosari on the border of the six-yard area, but he shot the ball away from the goal.
After that attack, Al Hilal imposed control over the course of the meeting and continued its offensive attempts in search of scoring the goal of progress, which made the Zamalek team retreat to the center of its stadium to absorb the enthusiasm of Al Hilal players while relying on attacks.
Play was confined to the center of the field until the 72nd minute, which saw an opportunity for Al Hilal, when Ighalo hit the ball from the edge of the penalty area, but Awad blocked it firmly.
Al Hilal's offensive attempts to score the winning goal continued, but it failed to penetrate the defense of Zamalek until the referee blew the whistle at the end of the meeting, announcing the ruling for the penalty shootout, which smiled at the Saudi Hilal.
Source: Al Jazeera
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