Ittihad regained the top spot in the Saudi Premier League with a 3-0 win over Al-Ittifaq at the Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium here, Thursday. Egyptian striker Emad Meteb scored a brace in the first half before Saleh Al-Saqri sealed the victory few minutes from the whistle. The win pushed Al-Ittihad to the top of the table with 46 points, two ahead of Al-Hilal. Crown Prince Cup champion Al-Hilal was bumped off the top spot following a 1-1 draw with Al-Shabab at the Prince Faisal Bin Fahd Stadium in Riyadh. Substitute Hassan Fallatah put Al-Shabab ahead in injury time and Al-Hilal's Yasser Al-Qahtani also found the time to draw level the game through a header. Al-Hilal is second with 44 points while Al-Shabab sits third with 31. The two sides have three matches left in the league. Al-Hilal which edged Al-Shabab 1-0 in the final match of the Crown Prince Cup last week had the upper hand in the game but failed to take the lead. In the 19th minute, Al-Hilal midfielder Christian Wilhelmsson lost a golden chance to put his side in front when Hilal secured a penalty. Wilhelmsson, however, hit ball straight into the hands of Al-Shabab keeper Waleed Abdullah. With only one striker, Al-Shabab was unable to reach the danger area of Al-Hilal, which managed a few good saves on Al-Shabab counterattacks. In the 38th minute, Al-Shabab was reduced to 10 players after defender Naif Al-Qadi collected his second yellow card. Al-Hilal's performance remained lukewarm even after the break despite a few changes made to refresh the squad. The first real threat in the second half came when Al-Shabab's Marcello Camacho's curving free kick hit the bar of Mohammed Al-Daeyea in the 71st minute. Six minutes later, Hilal's Romanian player Meril Radoi responded with a long-range shot that went wide. In the 85th minute, another shot from Camacho hit the bar and was cleared by defender Majed Al-Marshadi. In the 94th minute, Fallatah shocked Al-Hilal with a close-range shot that hit the right of Al-Daeyea's net but action was not over as Al-Qahtani equalized with a header seconds from time. Elsewhere, Al-Ahli won 2-0 over Al-Wehdah in Makkah, while Al-Nasr came back to Riyadh with a 2-1 win over Tabuk's Al
