Preview of 17th week of SPL … Al Hilal seeks to regain the lead, Al-Ittihad seeks to return to victories, Al-Ahly is looking for compensation

The matches of the 17th week of the Saudi Professional League will start on Thursday which will last over three days, and this week’s confrontations will be an opportunity for many of the front teams to restore some balance and continue for others their positive results and their adherence to leadership positions, as well as the attempt of the teams at the back of the table to achieve the points necessary for their continuation in the league Pro for next season.

Xenia Sports takes a look at the matches of the 17th week of the Pro League:

Al-Ain VS Al-Ittifaq

That round opens with Al-Ettifaq match hosted by the Al Ain team, and both teams have different aspirations, as the host team seeks to restore the tone of achieving the points absent from it since the 12th round, that is, since the start of the current year, so Al Ain team received 5 losses in a row that brought it back to last place in the ranking table with 12 points And it became the first team to be threatened with relegation to the lowest division.

While Al-Ettifaq team, while hosted by Al Ain, is trying to build on its wonderful victory in the last round at home at the expense of Al Ittihad team, a victory that made it close to the Champions League ranks by one point, as Al-Ittifaq has 24 points in its balance, and it was the first round confrontation between the two teams, which was In the second week it ended in favor of Team Al-Itifaq with a score of 1/2.

Al-Hilal VS Abha

Al-Hilal, the holder of the last title, returns to the league after it missed the matches of the last round due to its super match against Al-Nasr, which ended in losing the second title that it is competing for the current season, Al-Hilal is seeking to regain the lead after losing the last round in favor of Al-Shabab team as well as regaining the path of victories that were not it knows her way only once in the last 6 rounds, and Al Hilal is in second place with 30 points and has a postponed match to play next week against Al Ain.

While Abha team, which is ranked 10 with 21 points, is trying to surprise the round in front of Al-Hilal and it is also aspiring to achieve a victory that he missed in the last three rounds, the first round confrontation that was held in Abha ended in a 1-1 draw.

Al-Ittihad VS Al-Fateh

Al-Ittihad team receives its counterpart Al-Fateh team, which is seeking to return to the path of victories after being led to the loss in the last round against Al-Itifaq team with two goals to nil, and the Al-Ittihad team is living its best season in five years, as it ranks fifth with 25 points, equal to the fourth-placed Taawon. Trailing him only by goal difference.

While the Al-Fateh team seeks to achieve a victory that it has missed in the past three rounds, and it is the one who sits in 12th place with 18 points and only one point separates it from the relegation centers, and the first round meeting that was held in Al-Ahsa ended in a positive draw 2/2.

Al-Nassr VS Al-Taawon

Al-Nassr team receives at its home stadium Al-Nasr Square (Marsool Park) its counterpart in the strongest meetings of the 17th round, and Al-Nassr enters the meeting ecstatically achieving the Super title at the expense of Al Hilal at the beginning of this week, and it is also the only team among the professional league clubs that have not lost any local meeting since the beginning This year, the team achieved a series of positive results in the last 5 rounds (4 wins, 1 draw) that pushed him to the seventh place with 21 points after the start of the worst season in the history of the Saudi Professional League.

While Al-Taawon team seeks, when traveling to meet Al-Nassr, to stick to staying among the Big Four and to ensure a qualified position for the AFC Champions League, as Al-Taawon ranks fourth with 25 points, and the first round match that was held in Buraidah ended in favor of Al-Taawon with a goal without response.

The matches of the 17th round will be completed on Friday with two confrontations, as Al-Batin, who is in the 13th place with 17 points, receives his partner in the same position, the Al-Faisaly team in a confrontation in which both teams seek to win the three points, which will push him to the middle of the table if one of them is achieved, and the first round match ended in favor Al-Faisaly, with a score of 1/2.

Al-Wehdah VS Al-Ahli

The second confrontation on the second day of round 17 will be a summit between the two neighbors, the Al-Wahda team, which receives its Al-Ahli counterpart in Makkah Al-Mukarramah. In that confrontation, Al-Wehda seeks to achieve a victory absent from it in the league championship since the beginning of this year, and Al-Wehda is ranked ninth with 21 points.

While Al-Ahli seeks to return to the competition for the lead, which was close to it in the last round, had it not been tied at home against Al-Batin in the last round, Al-Ahli occupies third place with 30 points, two points behind Al-Shabab the leader and on par with Al-Hilal, the second-place holder who has the advantage of the goal difference and a postponed match, and it was The first-round match ended in favor of Al-Ahli with a score of 1/0.

On Saturday, the 17th round of the Professional League ends with two final matches …

Damak hosts his counterpart Al-Qadisiyah in the city of Mahalla, and each team seeks to snatch match points to improve its position in the ranking table. Damak’s team seeks to move away from the danger zone as it ranks 15th with 12 points, while Qadisiyah is ranked 8th with 21 points, and the first round meeting ended in favor Al-Qadisiyah, with a score of 1/2.

Al-Shabab VS Al-Raed

Al-Shabab team will be on a date with the continuation of the lead in the event of the benefit of Al-Raed team at the end of the round matches, Al-Shabab managed to take the lead in the last round in the absence of the former leader (Al-Hilal) from the matches of the 16th round, and Al-Shabab is the top of the table with 32 points and seeks to achieve His third victory in a row.

Whereas Al-Raed team seeks to continue its recovery which it achieved in the last two rounds, in which it defeated Al-Fateh and Damak, to climb to 11th place with 19 points, and Al-Raed seeks to achieve his third successive victory even if it was at the expense of its host, the leader, Al-Shabab. The two teams ended in a positive draw with two goals for each team.