Malcom at the double to send Al Hilal three clear at summit | OneFootball

Al Hilal moved three points clear at the top of the Roshn Saudi League following a dominant 4-1 win at home to Al Wehda on Tuesday night.

The champions, who went into the RSL’s inaugural Legends Week ahead of second-placed Al Ittihad on goal difference, were worthy winners at Kingdom Arena having gotten off to the perfect start when Marcos Leonardo opened the scoring seven minutes in.

The summer signing from Benfica pounced on Al Wehda goalkeeper Abdullah Al Owaishir’s failure to hold Renan Lodi’s powerful long-range effort to prod home. In doing so, Leonardo continued his fine form in front of goal, this strike coming five days after his hat-trick in the 9-0 victory against Al Fateh.

In fact, the winger has found the net in his past four RSL matches, taking his season’s tally to nine from 12 appearances.

Al Hilal needed only four more minutes to double their advantage. This time, Mohammed Kanno found Malcom with a brilliant first-time slide pass, leaving the Brazilian to control perfectly before placing his shot past Al Owaishir.

The hosts made safe the result eight minutes from time, when Malcom meet Ruben Neves’ whipped free-kick from the left to nod home from close range. The double lifted Malcom to five RSL goals this term.

Al Wehda did reduce the deficit in the closing stages through Craig Goodwin’s in-swinging free-kick that evaded everyone and nestled inside Yassine Bono’s far post.

There was, though, still time for Al Hilal to give the 20,000-plus crowd one final highlight – and it was perhaps the best of the bunch. In injury-time, substitute Abdullah Al Hamdan unleashed a fierce, curled effort into the top-right corner.

The result means Al Ittihad are again playing catch-up. On Wednesday, the 2022-23 champions host sixth-placed Al Shabab in Jeddah. Meanwhile, Al Wehda lie second from bottom in the table, two points from safety after 16 matches.