The hosts will be in high spirits after their late win over the weekend, but they face a significant step up in class here and will likely be the happier of the sides if this one ends level.
However, the visitors will know that they cannot afford to drop any more points this season and are likely to go all out to secure the victory. Matches between these sides tend to be fairly close, and we are expecting the same in this one, but we are backing Al Ittihad to clinch the win by the final whistle.
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Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Al Ittihad win with a probability of 43.23%. A win for Al Shabab had a probability of 30.5% and a draw had a probability of 26.3%.
The most likely scoreline for an Al Ittihad win was 0-1 with a probability of 10.85%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (8.88%) and 0-2 (7.72%). The likeliest Al Shabab win was 1-0 (8.79%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.49%). The actual scoreline of 1-0 was predicted with an 8.8% likelihood.
0.49) 
-0.81) 
