Al-Hilal’s Winning Streak Ends as Neom Secures 2-0 Victory
Al-Hilal arrived looking untouchable. Five wins on the spin, top of the Roshn League, swagger in every step. Then the night changed before a ball was even kicked.
Yassine Bounou pulled up injured in the warm-up. A routine evening suddenly carried a crackle of anxiety. Mohammed Al-Owais was rushed in to start, and from that moment the leaders never quite looked settled.
Neom shut the door, then strike
Neom sensed it. From the first whistle, they squeezed the pitch and suffocated Al-Hilal’s stars. The spaces that usually open up for the Blues simply never appeared. Every passing lane closed, every dribble met a body.
The punishment arrived early.
On 15 minutes, chaos in the Al-Hilal box ended with Kalidou Koulibaly turning the ball into his own net. A scruffy, brutal blow. Neom had the lead; Al-Hilal’s carefully drawn plans were ripped up in an instant.
The response from the league leaders was more frustration than fury. They pushed, but they rarely pierced. With Neom’s defensive block set deep and disciplined, most of Al-Hilal’s attempts came from distance. Sultan Al-Ghannam tried. Krisencio Summerville tried. The Neom goal, though, stayed largely untroubled.
Inzaghi rolls the dice
Simone Inzaghi refused to watch the game drift away. Early in the second half he shook the bench, sending on Nasser Al-Dawsari, Sultan Mandash and Mohamed Kader Mete to inject pace and urgency, to drag Al-Hilal back into a contest that felt like it was slipping from their grasp.
The chances finally arrived.
On 50 minutes, Gabriel Martinelli found himself clean through on the Neom goal. It was the moment Al-Hilal had been chasing. He hesitated, then fluffed the one-on-one, the kind of miss that lingers in the mind long after the final whistle.
Three minutes later, Ruben Neves curled a precise effort inches wide of the left post. Neom were wobbling, the pressure building, the leaders closing in.
Then Marcin Bulka took over the night.
Bulka slams the door shut
On 65 minutes, Ollie Watkins rose inside the box and powered a header towards goal. It looked destined to drag Al-Hilal back into the game. Bulka exploded across his line and produced a superb save, clawing the ball away and, with it, much of Al-Hilal’s belief.
It was not a one-off. The Neom goalkeeper had already turned away other efforts in the half, each stop chipping away at the leaders’ confidence and underlining his authority on the game. Every save felt heavier than the last.
From there, Neom tightened their grip. They slowed the tempo, managed every duel, and ran down the clock with the assurance of a side that knew exactly what this result could mean. When the final whistle came, it confirmed a precious 2-0 win and a statement performance.
A first domestic sting for Inzaghi
For Al-Hilal, the damage went well beyond a single bad night. They remain on 15 points, but this was their first Roshn League defeat of the season and the end of a five-match winning run. More telling still, it was their first domestic loss since Simone Inzaghi took charge at the start of last season.
The aura of invincibility cracked.
Neom, meanwhile, climbed to 12 points with their fourth victory of the campaign, suddenly looking like far more than just stubborn spoilers.
And somewhere in Riyadh, Al-Nassr will have watched every minute with interest. They also sit on 12 points going into this round and now know that a win over Abha on Wednesday would slice the gap at the top to a single point.
The champions-elect tag has followed Al-Hilal for weeks. After Neom’s ambush and Bounou’s untimely injury, the question now is simple: how do the leaders respond when the chase has truly begun?
