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Steffen Schmidt - August 16, 2023
Al Hazem vs Al-Ettifaq
Saudi Pro League
Date: 18 August 2023, Friday
Kick-off at 19:00 UK / 20:00 CET
Venue: Ar-Rass Stadium (Rass).
Al-Ettifaq took advantage of Al Nassr’s congested schedule at the start of the season to claim a big scalp on the opening day.
Steven Gerrard’s men completed a second-half comeback in a 2-1 victory over rich Al Nassr side on Monday afternoon.
The team’s main stars Robin Quaison and Moussa Dembele found two quickfire goals shortly after the break to give their team a very important inaugural win of the season.
Al-Ettifaq will have a great opportunity to back it up on Friday night when they visit Rass for the clash against the newly-promoted Al Hazem side in Matchday No 2.
Al Hazem have one of the most modest rosters in the entire league and they will need a miracle to avoid an immediate return to the second class football next year.
They started the season with a tough trip to Jeddah where they fell 3-1 away at Al Ahli courtesy of a Roberto Firmino hat-trick.
Al Hazem had previously failed to find the back of the net in a 1-0 defeat to Portuguese side Santa Clara in a preseason friendly.
Although they are not among the traditional top-four teams in Saudi Arabia, Al-Ettifaq possess enough talent in their ranks for a strong challenge in quest for the top positions.
On top of Quaison and Dembele who were on target on Monday, Steven Gerrard can also count on the servives of Jordan Henderson, Jack Hendry, Vitinho, and Berat Ozdemir.
Al-Ettifaq got off to a fantastic start to the season with a big win over Al Nassr and we expect them to back it up without too many problems against one of the weakest sides in the division.
The away win is well worth backing at the 1.90 odds while we also like the Over 2.5 goals FT bet at the 1.85 odds knowing about the high-scoring trend in recent H2H clashes between these rivals.
