Al-Hilal's Perfect Start Shattered by NEOM
Al-Hilal’s perfect start to the Roshn League season was ripped up in a night that went wrong before a ball was even kicked.
Early shock, early chaos
Five wins from five, confidence high, rhythm flowing – then Yassine Bounou pulled up injured in the warm-up. The plan changed in an instant. Mohammed Al-Owais was thrown in, cold, with minutes to adjust.
Al-Hilal never really did.
NEOM smelled vulnerability and set their trap. Compact, disciplined, aggressive in the right areas, they closed every lane in front of the visitors’ stars. The Blues were pushed into crowded central zones, their usual fluency suffocated by a tight, well-drilled back line.
The punishment came quickly. On 15 minutes, Kalidou Koulibaly, usually the defensive rock, turned the ball into his own net. One misstep, one sliced clearance, and NEOM had a lead that flipped the script and rattled the leaders.
Al-Hilal tried to respond with force. They pushed bodies forward, but kept slamming into that organised NEOM block. With space in the box at a premium, their attacks drifted further out. Long shots, half-chances, hopeful strikes. Sultan Al-Ghannam and Krisencio Summerville both had sights of goal, but nothing that truly unsettled the hosts.
Inzaghi rolls the dice
Simone Inzaghi refused to watch the game drift away. After the break, he went to his bench, looking for a spark. Nasser Al-Dawsari, Sultan Mandash and Mohamed Kader Mete all came on, tasked with lifting the tempo and dragging Al-Hilal back into the contest.
The chances finally came.
On 50 minutes, Gabriel Martinelli found the opening Al-Hilal had been chasing. Clean through on goal, one-on-one with the NEOM keeper, he had the moment to tilt the night back in his team’s favour. He missed it. The finish lacked conviction, and the opportunity slipped away.
Three minutes later, Ruben Neves tried to take control himself. He bent a curling effort towards the far corner, the kind of strike he has made a trademark. It drifted just wide of the left post, close enough to draw gasps, not close enough to change the scoreline.
Those misses would haunt Al-Hilal soon enough.
Bulka slams the door
As Al-Hilal pushed, NEOM needed a hero. Marcin Bulka stepped forward.
On 65 minutes, Ollie Watkins rose inside the box and powered a header towards goal, the sort of chance that usually drags champions back into a game. Bulka reacted brilliantly, throwing himself across to produce a superb save that cut off what felt like Al-Hilal’s clearest route back.
It wasn’t a one-off. The NEOM goalkeeper kept repelling waves of blue shirts, turning away other efforts and growing in authority with every intervention. Each save drained belief from Al-Hilal and fed it straight into his own back line.
From there, NEOM tightened their grip. They managed the game with maturity, slowed the tempo when needed, and used every second to their advantage. Al-Hilal’s urgency never translated into control. The clock became the home side’s ally.
By the final whistle, NEOM had what they came for: a controlled, hard-earned 2–0 victory and three precious points.
A streak snapped, a title race stirred
The defeat leaves Al-Hilal stuck on 15 points, their first Roshn League loss of the season snapping a run of five straight wins. The numbers tell an even bigger story: this was their first domestic defeat since Simone Inzaghi took charge at the start of last season.
For a team that had made winning look routine, this was a jolt.
NEOM, meanwhile, climb to 12 points with their fourth win of the campaign, their performance a statement that they can bloody the nose of the league’s dominant force when the plan is right and the execution is ruthless.
And somewhere in Riyadh, Al-Nassr will have watched it all with interest. Also on 12 points going into the round, they now walk into their clash with Abha on Wednesday with a clear opportunity: win, and the gap to the leaders shrinks to a single point.
Al-Hilal’s aura of invincibility has cracked. The question now is simple: was this just a stumble, or the moment the title race truly opened up?
