Al Rayyan: It may have looked like a cruise but Al Hilal SFC head coach Jorge Jesus (pictured) said his side had to work hard for their 3-1 win over Al Rayyan SC in their AFC Champions League Elite opener on Tuesday. Four-time Asian champions Al Hilal went into the break leading 3-0 thanks to goals from Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, Joao Concelo and Marcos Leonardo but then had to be on their toes to prevent an Al Rayyan fightback after Roger Guedes pulled one back for the Qatari side two minutes into the second half. “The match was between two teams with top-level players.
The opposing team forced us to be focused throughout the match, and to take advantage of all our chances. Although we reached the opponents’ goal in the second half, we did not succeed in scoring from the opportunities,” said Jesus. “In the first half, we succeeded in scoring three goals, and Al Rayyan had an advantage in the second half, but whoever scores the most wins, which is what happened today.
” The victory at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium kept Al Hilal’s start to the season perfect, having opened their Saudi Pro League 2024/25 campaign with four wins and Jesus said his side have to remain focused. “We succeeded in achieving an important victory against a strong competitor today but we have important matches ahead of us and we must focus on them in order to continue achieving victories.” Al Rayyan head coach Poya Asbaghi was generally satisfied with his side’s performance despite the result.
“I am proud of the level the team presented despite the loss. Many times during the match, we were the better side and we played with high fighting spirit and tried to achieve a better result,” said Asbaghi. Al Rayyan travel to face Saudi Arabia’s Al Nassr on September 30 while Al Hilal will welcome Al Shorta FC of Iraq to Riyadh on October 1.
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