Al-Ittihad achieved a great victory over Abha 4-2, in the Friday’s match at Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium for the thirteenth round of the Saudi league.
Prior to this match, Al-Ittihad had not known the path to domestic victories in 6 games in a row, specifically since late September, but it seems that the departure of coach Nuno Santo made things different against Abha.
Karim Benzema took the lead for the hosts in the 38th minute from the penalty spot, before the visitors succeeded in equalizing through Ekambi in the 51st minute, Igor Coronado succeeded in giving Ittihad the lead again just three minutes later with an assist from Benzema as well.
The French star continued to shine in the meeting, as he scored the third and fourth goals for Al-Ittihad in the 67th and 69th minutes, to mark his first hat-trick in the Saudi league, while Fahd Al-Jumaiah scored the second goal for Abha in the 85th minute.
Benzema's hat-trick raised his tally of goals in the league to 8 goals, thus becoming only 4 goals away from the top scorer, Cristiano Ronaldo, and his total goals with the "Al Amid" in all competitions to 12 goals.
With this victory, Al-Ittihad reached the 24th point and raised it to fifth place, 11 points behind the leader Al-Hilal, while Abha froze its score at 13 points in 13th place.
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