Al-Hilal's Perfect Start Shattered by Injuries and Errors
Al-Hilal’s perfect start to the Roshn League season was ripped apart before a ball had even been kicked.
As the players went through their final drills, Yassine Bounou suddenly pulled up injured in the warm-up. One moment he was the calm, commanding presence at the back; the next, he was out, and Simone Inzaghi was forced into a change no coach wants minutes before kick-off.
Mohammed Al-Owais was thrown in cold.
Chaos from the first whistle
The disruption rattled Al-Hilal. The rhythm was off, the back line unsure, and Neom sensed it immediately. The visitors pressed high, snapped into challenges, and tested every touch in Al-Hilal’s defensive third.
Al-Owais struggled to settle. Misjudged decisions, hesitant movement, and a back four that never quite trusted what was behind them left the hosts exposed. Neom did not waste the invitation.
Kalidou Koulibaly’s nightmare began early.
Koulibaly’s own goal deepens the shock
On 15 minutes, the Senegalese defender misread a cross and headed the ball into his own net, gifting Neom the lead and turning an already awkward evening into a full-blown crisis.
The timing could not have been worse. Al-Hilal were still trying to absorb the loss of Bounou, still trying to adjust to a new goalkeeper and a new dynamic. Instead of settling, they were suddenly chasing a game against opponents who arrived brimming with belief.
Neom, already confident, now had something even more dangerous: a lead to protect.
Al-Owais error turns concern into a crisis
The tension never left Al-Hilal’s back line. Passes went astray, clearances lacked conviction, and every Neom attack carried a sense of threat. The unease finally boiled over just before half-time.
In the 44th minute, Al-Owais rushed recklessly off his line. The move backfired badly. The ball broke loose, confusion reigned in the Al-Hilal penalty area, and Amadou Koné reacted quickest to punish the chaos and make it 2-0.
What began as an enforced change had become a full-scale defensive collapse. Bounou’s absence loomed over every mistake. Al-Owais never found the authority required, and the line led by Koulibaly crumbled under pressure, handing Neom a commanding advantage.
Neom lean on a ruthless record
The numbers underlined just how bleak the situation looked for Al-Hilal.
Opta data showed Neom had won all three matches this season in which they scored first across the opening five rounds of the Roshn League. Once they got in front, they stayed there.
Now they had two.
That statistic hung over the second half like a warning sign. Al-Hilal, who had marched into the sixth round with five wins from five and 15 points in the bank, suddenly found their perfect record under serious threat, undone not by sustained superiority from Neom, but by an injury in the warm-up and a string of individual errors.
A rare sight for Al-Hilal
Seeing Al-Hilal 0-2 down at half-time in the Pro League is almost unheard of. The last time they went into the break trailing by two or more was against Al-Fateh in May 2025, when they walked off at the interval 2-0 down before roaring back to win 4-3.
That memory will have lingered in the dressing room. The question now is whether this version of Al-Hilal, rocked by the loss of Bounou and betrayed by their own mistakes, can summon the same response.
