Hilal failed to recover from its defeat in the final of the Prince Faisal Bin Fahd Cup as it drew 1-1 with Al-Shabab in the Saudi Premier League in Riyadh Friday. Sultan Al-Saud put Al-Hilal ahead in the first half and Nasser Al-Shamrani scored the equalizer a few minutes after the break from the spot. With just two rounds left, Al-Hilal needs to win its upcoming match against Al-Shabab to keep its hopes alive in chasing the Saudi League leader Al-Ittihad. Another draw with Shabab will kill Al-Hilal's dreams and reward the title of the new restructured league to Ittihad Jeddah. Al-Ittihad remains on top with 48 points, four points clear of Al-Hilal which stays second. Third-placed Al-Shabab (38 points), however, aims to finish second in the league with victories in the two remaining clashes against Al-Hilal and Al-Watani. Al-Hilal took Shabab after 48 hours of a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Al-Nasr in the final of the Prince Faisal Cup despite attempts by Hilal's management to postpone the game. On Friday, Al-Shabab and Al-Hilal had a number of absentees in their squads as Al-Hilal missed injured Yasser Al-Qahtani and suspended Marcelo Tavares while Al-Shabab's Faisal Al-Oibiali and Naji Majrshi also were out on suspension and injury respectively. Although Al-Hilal enjoyed early possession causing few alarms, the first threat came from Al-Shabab after 10 minutes when Manuel Martinez shot from close to be denied by Al-Hilal goalkeeper Mohammed Al-Daeyea. In the 16th minute, Hassan Moaz launched another threat on Daeyea but his shot was saved for a corner. In the midway of the first half, Mohammed Al-Shalhoub almost put Al-Hilal up but his free-kick hit the bar of Waleed Abdullah. Six minutes before the break, Sultan Al-Saud broke the deadlock when he connected Tariq Al-Taib's cross to the left side of Shabab goalkeeper. The second half saw Al-Shabab in a new formation in an attempt to cancel Al-Hilal's lead. In the 52nd minute, Hilal goalkeeper Mohammed Al-Daeyea saved his side when he denied a penalty from Nasser Al-Shamrani. Seven minutes later, Al-Shamrani hit Al-Daeyea's net with another penalty. Elsewhere, Al-Hassan Al-Yami scored a brace to give Najran a 2-0 home win over Al-Ahli. Prince Faisal Bin Fahd Champion Al-Nasr also recorded a 2-1 win over Al-Hazm in Al-Rass. In Dammam, a late goal from Mosa Al-Harbi gave Al-Watani a 1-1 draw against A-Ittifaq. He scored in the 90th minute to cancel Prince Tagoe's goal. Al-Taei and Al-Qadissiyah also drew goalless in Hail. The draw destroyed the two sides hopes to stay in the Saudi Premier League as they ended up with 11 and 10 points respectively. Ronnie out for season Barcelona forward Ronaldinho will miss the rest of the season after tearing a muscle in his right leg, the club said in a statement on Friday. The Brazilian suffered the injury in training on Thursday and scans carried out on Friday confirmed that he would be out of action for around six weeks. The 28-year-old has been plagued by a succession of injury and fitness problems in the past 12 months with local media reporting that the club wants to offload him at the end of the season. Barca, though, was boosted on Friday by news that Argentina forward Lionel Messi hopes to have recovered from his injury in time for the Champions League semifinals, if the Primera Liga side gets past Schalke 04 in the quarters. Former World Player of the Year Ronaldinho has been in the starting line-up in just 13 of Barcelona's 30 league matches and came off the bench in another four, scoring a total of eight goals. __
