Al Ittihad will be looking to take a step closer to reclaiming the Saudi Pro League title when they take on Al Orubah at the Al Inma Bank Stadium at King Abdullah Sport City on Thursday afternoon.
With Al-Hilal only scheduled to face Al-Ettifaq on Friday, Al Ittihad will be able to pull eight points clear at the top of the standings if they secure all three points in this match.
Match preview
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Al Ittihad enter this match off the back of a thrilling 2-2 draw in the Jeddah derby against Al Ahli last week, when they showed tremendous fighting spirit, coming from a goal down twice to salvage a point.
Moussa Diaby cancelled out Roger Ibanez's opener in the second half, and it looked like Ivan Toney had secured the points for Ahli late in the day, but Karim Benzema levelled proceedings with virtually the final kick of the match.
While the People's Club would have loved three points from that match, the result still saw them increase their advantage at the top of the table to five points, thanks to Al-Nassr beating Al-Hilal 3-1 in the Saudi capital a day earlier.
With that, Laurent Blanc's side extended their unbeaten run to 10 matches across all competitions, a period during which they also punched their ticket to the King's Cup final, where they will face Al-Qadisiyah.
Ittihad will now return to their home patch, where they have been simply superb this season, dropping points only once in 13 matches, while having only failed to score two or more goals in two games at this venue this term.
Meanwhile, it is turning into a nervy end to the season for Al Orubah, who are currently on 26 points in as many games and could find themselves in the drop zone by the end of this weekend if results elsewhere go against them.
The Giants went into the international break following a 6-0 drubbing at the hands of Al Shabab and returned to action with a 1-0 loss to Al Okhdood last week, marking their third consecutive defeat since the start of March.
Additionally, after conceding nine goals during their ongoing losing streak, Adnan Hamad's side has now let in a total of 51 goals in top flight this season - the second-most of any team in the division.
The visitors lost the reverse fixture 2-0 at Al-Jouf University Stadium in November, and given they have only won three away games all season and failed to score in four of their last five on the road, pulling off an upset in this one seems highly unlikely.
Team News
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First-choice shotstopper Predrag Rajkovic suffered a severe thigh injury in their King's Cup victory, and Mohammed Al-Mahasneh was hauled off last week with a calf strain, meaning Al Ittihad will have to rely on 19-year-old Hamed Al-Shanqity between the sticks for this match.
Mario Mitaj has now missed the last six games, also due to a thigh issue, while Steven Bergwijn picked up an ankle injury ahead of the international break, and neither player is expected to feature this weekend.
Al Orubah, on the other hand, have just one injury absentee for this match in the form of former Fulham and Hull City midfielder Jean Michael Seri, who only made five appearances this season before sustaining a muscle injury.
Omar Al-Somah has scored six goals in nine appearances for the visitors since arriving back in the Kingdom from Al-Arabi in January, and he will almost certainly lead the line this week in front of Brad Young in the number 10 role.
Al Ittihad possible starting lineup:
Al-Shanqity; Shanqeeti, Al-Mousa, Pereira, Kadesh; Kante, Fabinho; Diaby, Aouar, Hernandez; Benzema
Al Orubah possible starting lineup:
Coucke; Al-Maqati, Kandouss, Al-Shuwaish, Abu Taha; Gudmundsson, Muhar; Al-Shammeri; Young, Al-Torais; Al Somah
We say: Al Ittihad 3-1 Al Orubah
Al Ittihad have been excellent on their home patch this season, winning all but one of their 13 matches at the Al Inma Bank Stadium at King Abdullah Sport City, and given the visitors' poor away form this term, we feel the People's Club will secure a fairly comfortable victory in this one.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Devesh Jaganath
