Malcom’s purpose was sufficient for Al-Hilal to outlive a late comeback try from Al-Khaleej, and proceed their unbeaten begin to the Saudi Professional League with a 3-2 win.
Al-Hilal began brightly, and Mohamed Kanno gave the guests an early scare when he struck the body of the purpose from vary within the eighth minute.
Kanno did discover the breakthrough 10 minutes later, although, as he latched onto Hamad Al Yami’s pull-back to bend a long-range effort into the again of the web.
Each goalkeepers have been pressured into snug saves shortly after, however Sergej Milikovic-Savic doubled Al-Hilal’s benefit 39 minutes in, thumping Malcom’s left-wing free-kick previous a helpless Moris.
Minutes later, Theo Hernandez was inches away from including a 3rd; like Kanno earlier on, he might solely discover the woodwork when he tried his luck contained in the field.
Malcom scored what turned out to be the winner 57 minutes in with one other long-range effort, however their management fizzled out within the ultimate 11 minutes.
Joshua King headed within the first of Al-Khaleej’s objectives to chop the deficit earlier than Giorgos Masouras arrange a nervy finale together with his personal long-range shot that beat Mohammed Al Yami, however they might not discover one other purpose to grab some extent.
One other factors within the bag pic.twitter.com/gYm5PlUYNw
— AlHilal Saudi Membership (@Alhilal_EN) December 26, 2025
Information Debrief: Al-Hilal pile stress on excellent leaders
Al-Hilal have now received their final seven Saudi Professional League video games, their longest streak since Might-October 2024 (10 video games), and it moved them only one level behind leaders Al-Nassr.
This additionally marked the eightieth consecutive match during which they’ve hit the web within the competitors, their longest run of video games.
Simone Inzaghi’s aspect have been dominant for almost all of the sport, accumulating 2.52 anticipated objectives (xG) from their 18 pictures.
However Al-Khaleej nearly brought on an upset by outperforming their 1.03 xG, and scored away at Al-Hilal for the primary time of their historical past.
