man Al-Ahli crushed its guest Al-Ittifaq 5-1 in the Zain Saudi Professional League at Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium here Wednesday. Omani striker Emad Al-Hosani put the host in the lead after 11 minutes before striker Yusuf Al-Salem of Ittifaq leveled the score from the spot four minutes later. Four minutes before the break, Ahli defender Jufain Al-Bishi was sent off. However, the sending-off seemed to have added strength to the greens as Marcinho da Silva gave Ahli the lead again in the 45th minute. Two minutes after the break, midfielder Tayseer Al-Jassim scored the third and his Brazilian teammate Victor Simoes made it 4-1 from the spot in the 60th minute. Ten minutes later, Francisco Wanderson sealed the win in front of 6,018 spectators. The win took Ahli one spot up to the eighth position of the standings with 17 points while Ittifaq slipped to the fourth place with 26 points. In another encounter, Champion Al-Hilal topped the standings after edging guest Al-Hazm 3-0 at Prince Faisal Bin Fahd Stadium in Riyadh on a Yasser Al-Qahtani hat trick. Al-Qahtani put Hilal in the lead in the 83rd minute before Qahtani himself doubled the score from the spot five minutes later. Three minutes into injury time, Qahtani, again, succeeded to seal his team's win. The late hat trick helped the last season's champion move three spots up to go on top of the league with 28 points; six-goal difference ahead of city rival Al-Nasr which is now second with the same amount of points. At Prince Abdullah Bin Jalawi Sports City Stadium in Al-Ahsa, ten-man Al-Fateh shared two goals with its guest Al-Nasr. Seven minutes after Fateh goalkeeper, Mohammed Shareefi was shown a red card in the 54th minute, Romanian midfielder of Nasr, Razvan Cocis made no mistake from the spot to put his team in the lead. However, Fateh midfielder Hussein Al-Moqahwi leveled the score four minutes later. The draw made Nasr lose the league lead for Hilal. The team is now second with 28 points while Fateh kept its tenth position with 15 points. On Thursday, Al-Ittihad will host Al-Faisali at Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium in Jeddah while Najran is scheduled meet Al-Ra'id at Al-Okhdoud Club Stadium. Ta'awon coach sacked Al-Ta'awon Club Wednesday ended the services of its Romanian football coach Gheorghe Multescu following the team's recent disappointing results. Engineer Mohammed Al-Sarrah who announced the sacking said that Multescu, (58), has been given all chances to improve the team, but “couldn't add much to the team”. Sarrah added that Multescu's assistant Florin Motroc will temporarily manage the team. Ta'awon has played 15 matches during the ongoing Zain Saudi Professional League. The Buraidah-based team is now 11th on the standings with 13 points after 15 matches. The decision followed the team's heavy defeat 1-4 from Al-Shabab team. Ta'awon has won in three encounters. It has drawn in four, and has lost eight matches.
