Al Ittihad continued to collapse, this time receiving their first continental defeat of the season after losing to Al Quwa Al Jawiya 2–0 in the fourth round of the AFC Champions League.
Despite the participation of all the stars in Ittihad line up led by Karim Benzema, the team played another bad game that could end coach Nuno Santo career in Jeddah.
Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya advanced through Ali Jassim in the 44th minute, before Muhannad Abdul Rahim Karrar succeeded in eliminating the hopes of the Saudi club to return to the game with a second goal in the 52nd minute.
This defeat does not put Al-Ittihad in a dilemma in Asia, as it is still at the top of the group standings with 9 points, while Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya reached the seventh point in second place, and Iran's Sephan comes third with 4 points compared to one point for the AGMC team.
But this defeat is an extension of the series of negative results, as "Al-Ameed" has only known to win twice in the last 10 matches, and he has not won the Saudi league since last September.
According to Saudi newspapers, Ittihad’s management is in the process of dismissing coach Nuno Santo from his post due to the decline in results, but the Portuguese replacement has not been revealed yet.
Ittihad is preparing for a very important stage, and we are talking here about the Club World Cup that Saudi Arabia will host next December, so the management wants things to get back to normal before the start of the upcoming event.
The Jeddah Tigers will face Auckland City on December 12 in the first round, and if they win, they will set up a date with Egypt's Al Ahly in the quarter-finals.
Al-Ittihad are sixth in the Saudi league standings with 21 points, a full 11 points behind the leader, Al-Hilal.
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