JEDDAH: For the second time in a week, Abderrazak Hamdallah saved the blushes of an unfortunate Karim Benzema on Monday, this time stepping up to give Al-Ittihad a last-gasp 2-1 win at home to Al-Wehda.
Four days previously, Hamdallah intervened to equalize after Benzema scored an own goal, helping the Jeddah giants to a 2-1 win over Navbahor of Uzbekistan in the Asian Champions League Round of 16. Back in domestic action in the Roshn Saudi League, this time Hamdallah scored both of his side’s goals after the Frenchman missed a first-half penalty and had two goals disallowed.
The result keeps the team in the race for a top-three finish, six points behind third-placed Al-Ahli, and the atmosphere in the stadium at the end was particularly jubilant given that it looked, just a few minutes from time, as if the visitors were about snatch a famous victory.
Earlier, Benzema had the ball in the back of the net on the half-hour mark but his goal from just inside the area was ruled out due to a Fabinho foul in the build-up.
Five minutes later, Al-Wehda took the lead through Odion Ighalo. A well-worked free-kick found Craig Goodwin on the left side of the area and the Australian’s low cross was poked home by Ighalo for his 10th league goal of the season.
Deep into first-half stoppage time, 11 minutes no less, Benzema had a chance to equalize when Al-Ittihad were awarded a penalty after Hamdallah went down in the box. Benzema stepped up but his low effort was well saved by the diving Munir Mohamedi.
Al-Ittihad continued to push forward after the break and were finally rewarded for their efforts seven minutes from the end. This time it was the turn of Hamdallah to attempt a penalty, after Ahmed Hegazi went down in the area. The Moroccan marksman made no mistake as he coolly chipped the ball into the middle of the goal.
This spurred the hosts on to try to snatch a winner but their hopes looked to have been dashed when Saad Al-Mosa was shown a red card in the 90th minute. Time seemed to be running out but Hamdallah was not ready to give up, and four minutes into added time he grabbed the winner.
Benzema, who earlier had a goal disallowed for a second time, for handling the ball from a headed knockdown by his strike partner, this time turned provider. He twisted and turned at the near post to take two defenders out of the picture and then pulled the ball back for Hamdallah to score from close range. The fans went crazy, the players went crazy, the coaching staff went crazy.
Al-Ittihad next face Al-Hilal away from home on Friday and will need to be ready to make the most of all their chances if they are going to take anything from the league leaders, who are sitting 22 points ahead of them.
