Qahtani hit four goals as Al-Hilal thrashed Najran 7-0 in a Saudi Premier League match at the Prince Faisal Bin Fahd Stadium in Riyadh on Saturday. The Riyadh side's victory was not just another convincing win but also helped Al-Hilal reduce the gap against the leader Al-Ittihad to a single point. The win also made Al-Hilal take revenge of the first-leg defeat at the hands of Najran. Al-Ittihad, which was held to a 3-3 drew by Al-Hazm in Al-Rass, ended the 14th round of the league on top with 37 points. It was the young international striker Naif Hazazi who helped Al-Ittihad draw level the match against Al-Hazm just seconds before the final whistle. Senegalese Hamad Ji put the Qassim side ahead after 54 minutes before Sultan Al-Nomari equalized after 10 minutes. Hamad Ji put his side ahead again two minutes later but Al-Nomari stole another equalizer in the 80th minute. Waleed Al-Jizani put Al-Hazm ahead in the 91st minute but Hazazi's late goal helped Al-Ittihad share points. In Riyadh, Yasser Al-Qahtani, making a second appearance after an injury kept him out for quite some time, put Al-Hilal in front with a 29th-minute shot from inside the box. Al-Qahtani doubled his side's lead four minutes later with a similar shot that hit the right side net of the Najran goalkeeper Ali Al-Amri. Najran tried to take matters into its own hands after the break but Ahmed Al-Fraidi made things worse for it when he netted Hilal's third goal in the 58th minute. Al-Qahtani scored again when he headed his side's fourth goal in the 65th minute. The drama was far from being over as Swedish international Christian Wilhelmsson hit Hilal's fifth after a face-off with Al-Amri. Al-Qahtani scored his fourth and Hilal's sixth goal in the 77th minute and substitute Fahd Al-Moubarak sealed the win for his side with yet another goal in the 84th minute. League actions will take a break for almost a month as the Saudi team takes part in the Gulf Nations Cup, which kick off on Jan. 4. Prince Faisal Bin Fahd Championship will, however, kick off next Tuesday with all the 12th Saudi Premier League teams taking part in the tourney. __
