Saudi Pro League defending champions Al-Hilal will have their focus on making it the fifth consecutive league win when they host Al Wahda at the Kingdom Arena on Tuesday.
Going by the last five meetings where the teams have won 5 of them out of the last six meetings, the home side has largely been on the ascendancy and will be looking forward to making it again in Riyadh.
From the way they sailed to the league title the last season with 94/0 which is unbeaten it was expected that Al-Hilal would have an easy run to the title this season but they got a push from Al-Ittihad.
Both are on 40 points in the Saudi Pro League midway through the season and are level in terms of goals scored but narrowly ahead of the Abu Dhabi side in terms of goal difference, which was built with three goals to spare against Al-Fateh last time around.
Salem Al-Dawsari and Marcos Leonardo both scored thrice for Al-Hilal and was supported by Renan Lodi, Kalidou Koulibaly, and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic.
While the club is seemingly plotting the exit of Neymar, Al Za’eem remain impressive in front of goal as they have raked up 14 goals in their last two matches and a record 48 goals this season.
This is intended to be the last season that Neymar features for Al-Hilal after the head coach Jesus held a briefing to state that the Brazil attacker will not feature in the second half of the season because of recurring injuries.
Tuesday’s hosts will be up for it in the fourth fixture of an extremely congested January schedule where maximum points will be desired to keep the momentum going into the last two fixtures for the month against Al-Qadisah and Al-Okhood.
With only 12 points from their 15 league games thus far, the Knights of Mecca are currently at the bottom of the rankings, however they are currently only in the drop zone on goal differential.
Tuesday's visitors need to tighten up at the back in order to turn around their season and escape the struggle for survival, as they have held the division's joint fewest clean sheets (one), together with Al Fateh.
As negotiations over Neymar's departure heat up, the previous team Santos is waiting in the wings for a reunion with their once-most-coveted asset. Neymar is still unavailable for Al-Hilal.
Due to an injury issue, top scorer Aleksandar Mitrovic has missed the last two games and is expected to miss Tuesday's match.
The attacker is undoubtedly someone to watch as Marcos Leonardo has scored eight goals in five games for the home team.
Abdullah Al Owayshir is predicted to start for Al Wahda for the seventh consecutive game despite giving up goals at a startling pace.
Yahya Naji, 25, has not played for the away team since their friendly match against Al Fateh in December and may miss a third straight game.
