Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – Al Hilal snatched a dramatic 1-1 draw against their rivals Al Nassr in a thrilling derby match on Tuesday evening, as part of the 32nd round of the Saudi Professional League, postponing Al Nassr’s official coronation as champions until the next rounds.
The “First Park” stadium hosted a heated confrontation between the two poles of the capital, which witnessed great excitement and competitiveness from the first minutes, in light of the desire of both teams to impose control and decide the confrontation.
Al-Hilal almost opened the scoring early in the fourth minute, after Karim Benzema met a perfect cross with a powerful shot from inside the penalty area, but goalkeeper Pinto made a brilliant save.
In the 18th minute, Al-Hilal managed to score through Benzema after a powerful header, but the referee canceled the goal due to offside.
Al-Nasr responded with a goal to take the lead through defender Mohammed Simakan, after he capitalized on a cross from a corner kick and headed it into the net with a powerful header.
Al-Hilal came close to equalizing on more than one occasion, most notably a powerful shot from Kingsley Coman that hit the post, after a defensive error that almost cost Al-Nasr a certain goal.
As the match was heading towards a precious victory for Al-Nassr, goalkeeper Pinto made a fatal mistake in the ninth minute of stoppage time, after failing to deal with a ball inside the penalty area following a throw-in, causing it to slip from his hands and into the net, giving Al-Hilal an exciting equalizer in the final moments.
مختصر المباراة — 🎥
ديربي العاصمة يُحسم بالتعادل بهدف لمثله ⚽️#النصر_الهلال | #دوري_روشن_السعودي pic.twitter.com/tIn5vWuSu4
— رياضة ثمانية (@thmanyahsports) May 12, 2026With this result, Al-Nasr raised its tally to 83 points at the top of the Saudi League standings, 5 points ahead of Al-Hilal in second place with 78 points, with two rounds remaining in the competition.
