Al-Sharjah loses to Al-Hilal of Saudi Arabia…and its Asian qualification calculations become more complicated

Al-Sharjah suffered a loss at home to Al-Hilal of Saudi Arabia with a free goal, today, Monday, in the sixth round of the AFC Champions League for the elite, complicating the “King’s” calculations in the race to qualify for the quarter-finals, after its score froze at 7 points, settling for seventh place temporarily, while Al-Hilal continued to lead the group with a full mark (18 points), despite playing the match without its international players.

“The King” was unable to win in the first appearance of its Portuguese coach, Jose Moraes, who was hired by the club to succeed Serbian Milos.

The start of the match was calm for both sides, before Al Hilal scored its first dangerous attempt through Malcolm, but the intervention of Shaheen Abdel Rahman prevented that and pushed the ball away to a corner kick “11”.
Minutes later, Leonardo wasted a clear scoring opportunity after a shot bounced off goalkeeper Adel Al Hosani, placing the ball directly in the goalkeeper’s position (15).
The Saudi team continued its offensive pressure, as Nunez fired a powerful shot from the left side that passed the post in the 21st minute, amid the absence of the expected offensive response from Sharjah.
The first real threat to the hosts came in the 28th minute, when Caio Lucas was alone on goal, but shot at the goalkeeper’s feet.
The 33rd minute witnessed great excitement after Cornado scored a goal from a difficult angle inside the penalty area, but Qatari referee Salman Falahi canceled the goal due to offside, based on his assistant’s signal.
Adel Al Hosani excelled in the final minutes of the first half, by stopping Nunez alone, before returning and blocking Cancelo’s shot from the rebound, maintaining a scoreless tie in the first half.
With the start of the second period, Sharjah appeared better and imposed offensive pressure, as it threatened Mohammed Al-Rubaie’s goal on more than one occasion, most notably a powerful shot from Othman Kamara that was blocked by the goalkeeper, before deflecting another powerful kick by Majid Sorour into a corner two minutes later, “58.”
Despite the positive start, Sharjah’s performance declined significantly after the 60th minute, as Al Hilal imposed a continuous siege on the home team’s areas, which almost resulted in a goal had it not been for the intervention of Majed Sorour.
And in the last moments. The crescent pressure in the 81st minute resulted in the only goal of the match, when Malcolm received the ball inside the penalty area without harassment, and shot it perfectly into the upper left corner of the Sharjah goal.