Al Fayha can hand Al-Hilal their first defeat of the Saudi Pro League campaign when the two sides square off on Friday at Prince Faisal Bin Fahd Stadium.
Al Burtuqali have lost four successive domestic encounters, suffering a 3-0 defeat at Al Khaleej last Thursday, while the league leaders stretched their winning run to 19 matches in all competitions with a thumping 7-0 victory over Al Taawoun.
Match preview
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Since the beginning of December, Vuk Rasovic has had a miserable time getting his side to play sound defensive football, with the club from Al Majma'ah conceding 15 goals in four domestic encounters this month.
That has dropped them down to 11th with 19 points after 18 league fixtures, four fewer than they accumulated at this stage a season ago.
Since being promoted into the Saudi Pro League for the 2017-18 campaign, Al Fayha have never suffered more than five successive defeats in the top flight, though that could happen on Friday.
They have triumphed in just one of their last seven competitive fixtures at home, losing their previous two home outings in this competition by a combined score of 8-2.
While they have only suffered one domestic defeat when drawing first blood, Al Fayha have also failed to triumph in four league fixtures this season after scoring the opening goal.
In two of their previous three home matches with Al Hilal, Al Fayha have come out on the winning end, keeping their opponents off the scoresheet on two occasions.
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Al-Hilal often seem to struggle for large stretches of a match, before making it look all too easy in the latter stages.
Last Thursday, the league leaders again turned a close encounter into a blowout, scoring five times in the final 18 minutes plus stoppage time.
Jorge Jesus has seen his side score 18 times domestically this season with 10 minutes or fewer remaining in the second half, enabling them to open up a seven-point lead atop the table.
Defensively, this group have often looked impenetrable, conceding just nine times domestically in 2023-24, the fewest in the Saudi top-flight, outscoring their last seven opponents by a combined score of 27-1.
Not since May 23 of last season has this team been beaten in a league contest away from home (2-0 at Al Adalah), dropping points only once as the visitors in 2023-24 (1-1 draw with Damac).
Their 57 goals scored domestically so far are just six fewer than the highest-scoring side Al-Nassr managed during the 30-game season in 2022-23, while Al-Hilal already have three more goals than a season ago with 12 matches remaining.
They are unbeaten in their last five matches in all competitions versus Al Fayha, winning their previous away visit against them 2-0 in April of last season.
Team News
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Al Fayha will be without Abdelhamid Sabiri and Anthony Nwakaeme due to unknown injuries, while Mohammed Majrashi has a cruciate ligament issue.
Goalkeeper Vladimir Stojkovic has been under siege in the Al Fayha goal, conceding 11 times in his last three league fixtures, while this team have not found the back of the net domestically since a brace from Henry Onyekuru in a 4-2 loss to Damac.
Neymar remains on the sidelines for Al-Hilal because of a cruciate ligament tear, while Mohammed Al-Owais is dealing with a back issue.
Sergej Milinkovic-Savic notched four goals in their previous encounter, Aleksandar Mitrovic picked up his team-leading 19th of the campaign, Ruben Neves and Mohamed Kanno also scored, while Bono only had to make three stops for his league-leading 11th clean sheet.
Al Fayha possible starting lineup:
Stojkovic; Al-Baqawi, Al-Shuwaish, Haqawi; Cimirot, Al-Harthi, Zidan, Konan; Sakala, Mandash, Oneykuru
Al-Hilal possible starting lineup:
Bono; Abdulhamid, Koulibaly, Al-Bulaihi, Al-Breik; Neves, Milinkovic-Savic; Michael, Al-Hamdan, Al-Dawsari; Mitrovic
We say: Al Fayha 0-4 Al-Hilal
Containing an attack as potent as Al-Hilal has been a nightmare for opposing teams even without Neymar, and we believe their attacking quality should overpower a slumping Al Fayha side and give the home side another comfortable victory.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Top tip
Joel Lefevre
