'Jeddah is green' - Al Ahli soak in Sea Derby victory against Al Ittihad | OneFootball

Franck Kessie teed up teammate Riyad Mahrez for the winner, helped Al Ahli hang on for a vital victory, then flamed the festivities.

“We were waiting for this moment,” the Cote D’Ivoire midfielder beamed after the closest of Sea Derbies concluded with his side defeating Al Ittihad 1-0 at a raucous Alinma Stadium. “Today we are having a party, because Jeddah is green.”

It certainly felt that way at the end of an intense-but-otherwise-even encounter on the shores of the Red Sea on Saturday night.

Kessie was crucial in Al Ahli’s victory, his lung-busting run down the right 10 minutes into the second half paving the way for Mahrez to pounce on his centre and slot past Predrag Rajkovic in the Al Ittihad goal.

But, despite the stadium bedecked largely in Al Ittihad yellow and black - the Roshn Saudi League champions were the designated home team and thus enjoyed the majority of the 46,000-plus support - it was those in green and white who celebrated long into the night.

“Today, I am very happy, I am very proud of my team,” Kessie said. “We are all happy because a derby is won. I am very happy to give everything to the others - the fans, the players.

“I am here only to help my team. I am here to play every game 100 percent. This is the only thing I am looking for. Today I am very happy to assist my team, very happy for the whole team, all the staff and the fans. A derby is won.

"When we start the game, I talk to the others, saying: 'Today, if we run more, if we all do 100%, we will win, and we will do it.'”

Kessie's rallying cry proved prophetic, the eventual win precious. Success in the season's first Sea Derby maintained Al Ahli’s unbeaten start to the RSL campaign, keeping them fifth in the standings, four points off the top three.

Al Ittihad, though, are stuck in eighth place, without a win in the top flight in five matches.

Yet, often as derbies dictate, on Saturday all that mattered was the result.

“It was a derby today, [so] for us, the most important thing was to get the three points, no matter how we did it,” Mahrez said, before replaying his match-winning moment.

“I'm waiting for Franck to make a difference over there [on the right wing]. I see he's winning his race. I try to go to the first cross, to take it, and the two [defenders] come - I think they get in the way a little bit - and the ball falls back on me. I just have to put it in the net. And that's it.

“It wasn't an easy match. All the derbies we played against them were always very tight. It wasn't spectacular. But you win a derby - and that's what we did today.”