Ittihad and Al-Hilal succeeded to maintain their positions in the Saudi Primer League which concluded its first leg matches. Almost every team took part in 11 rounds. The end of the first stage saw Al-Ittihad on the top of the table with 30 points, three ahead of the defending champion Al-Hilal. In their last match at the Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium in Jeddah, Al-Ittihad and Al-Hilal shared the spoils to keep their challenge on track. The two sides enter the second stage on Dec. 11 with bright records as Al-Ittihad aims to continue its unbeaten run while Riyadh side Al-Hilal, which lost one game against Najran, will struggle to edge Al-Ittihad to retain the title. The two sides, however, drew in three clashes. Meanwhile, Al-Shabab also continued its brilliant show in the last rounds after a 5-0 victory over bottom side Abha at the Prince Faisal Bin Fahd Stadium in Riyadh on Thursday. Al-Shabab striker Nasser Al-Shamrani put himself on the top of the top scorers with eight goals after he netted three goals in Abha. Abdu Atif and Yousif Al-Salem scored the other goals. Al-Shabab will resume the second leg matches, staying third with 22 points. Al-Nasr ended in the fourth spot with 18 points and plays its next game against Al-Ahli which edged the Riyadh side 2-0 in the final match of the GCC Champions League Wednesday. Despite winning the Cup, Al-Ahli failed to make any advance being in the seventh spot with 13 points from three wins and four draws. In the fifth place, comes Al-Ittifaq with 17 points after last Thursday's victory over Al-Raed in Qassim. The late goal from Hamed Al-Hamed sealed the win for Dammam's side. The home team Al-Raed took the lead in the 22nd minute with Boris Kabi netting the goal first before Badr Al-Khamis drew level the game six minutes later. Al-Wehdah also won 2-0 over Al-Watani at the King Khaled Sports City in Tabuk to advance to the sixth spot on 15 points. Najran and Al-Raed will be seeking more points in the next rounds at least to keep their position in the eighth and ninth spots with 11 and nine points respectively . Al-Watani with five points ended the first leg round in the 11th place just one point ahead of Abha which only drew in four matches and lost the remaining seven games. __
