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

Sérgio Conceição experienced a rollercoaster in the Middle East: after eliminating Cristiano Ronaldo's Al Nassr, 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 league, reigning champions Al-Ittihad managed a 4-4 draw away at Al-Khaleej, coming back from a 4-0 deficit.

In just four minutes, the home team, with Portuguese player Pedro Rebocho in the starting eleven, scored two goals: Joshua King in the 14th minute and Konstantinos Fortounis in the 18th.

Shortly before the half-hour mark, Sérgio Conceição faced another problem: Fabinho received a straight red card in the 32nd minute, leaving the visitors—who had Portuguese players Danilo Pereira and Roger Fernandes—down to ten men with more than an hour left to play.

In the 37th minute, Fortounis converted a penalty and scored his second, before assisting Joshua King for the Norwegian’s second goal at the start of the second half, in the 47th minute.

Al-Ittihad responded around the hour mark with Moussa Diaby, who scored in the 51st minute and again in the 86th.

Mario Mitaj pulled one back in the 90+6th minute (4-3) and, when all seemed lost, Al Ghamdi equalized in the 90+8th minute, averting disaster for Sérgio Conceição.

With this result, Al-Ittihad have now gone four league games without a win and sit in 8th place with 11 points; Al-Khaleej are one spot above, also with 11 points.

Otávio loses in Saudi Arabia

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

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

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