From 4-0 to 4-4 with ten men: Conceição stuns Arabia | OneFootball

Sérgio Conceição experienced a rollercoaster in the Middle East: after eliminating Al Nassr, featuring Cristiano Ronaldo, Jorge Jesus, and João Félix, in the King's Cup, the Portuguese coach avoided humiliation this Saturday by scoring three goals in ten minutes.

In the 7th round of the Saudi championship, the reigning champion Al-Ittihad secured a 4-4 draw during their visit to Al-Khaleej, coming back from a 4-0 deficit.

In four minutes, the home team, with Portuguese player Pedro Rebocho in the starting lineup, scored two goals: Joshua King at 14′ and Konstantinos Fortounis at 18′.

Shortly before the half-hour mark, Sérgio Conceição faced another problem: Fabinho received a direct red card at 32′, leaving the visitors – who had Portuguese players Danilo Pereira and Roger Fernandes – reduced to ten men with over an hour left to play.

At 37′, Fortounis converted a penalty and scored again, before assisting Joshua King for the Norwegian's second goal at 47′, early in the second half.

Al-Ittihad responded near the hour mark with Moussa Diaby, who scored at 51′ and again at 86′.

Mario Mitaj reduced the deficit at 90+6′ (4-3) and, when all seemed lost, Al Ghamdi equalized at 90+8′, preventing disaster for Sérgio Conceição.

With this result, Al-Ittihad has four consecutive games without a win in the championship and occupies 8th place with 11 points; Al-Khaleej is one place above, also with 11 points.

Otávio loses in Saudi Arabia

In another match played on Saturday afternoon, Al-Taawon defeated Al-Qadisiya 2-0. With former FC Porto player Otávio starting for the visiting team, the two goals came in the second half: Waleed Al Ahmad opened the scoring at 57′ with an assist from Fulgini and scored again at 66′, setting the final result.

The round continues with another match: Al Nassr, managed by Jorge Jesus and featuring João Félix and Cristiano Ronaldo, hosts Al-Fayha, coached by fellow Portuguese Pedro Emanuel.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.