Al-Hilal's Perfect Start Ruined by Injury and Mistakes

Al-Hilal’s perfect start to the Roshn League season was ripped apart before a ball was even kicked.

As the players went through their warm-up, Moroccan goalkeeper Yassine Bounou pulled up injured. One moment he was the anchor of Al-Hilal’s back line, the next he was out, leaving Italian coach Simone Inzaghi with no choice but to throw Mohammed Al-Owais into the firing line at the last second.

The mood inside the stadium shifted. So did the match.

Early chaos, early punishment

Al-Hilal never settled. The reshuffled defence looked jittery, the understanding between goalkeeper and back line missing from the first whistle. Neom sensed it immediately and went after them, pressing high and asking questions Al-Hilal had no early answer to.

The pressure told on 15 minutes.

Kalidou Koulibaly, usually the rock at the heart of the defence, misjudged a header and sent the ball into his own net. Neom were gifted the lead, Al-Owais was beaten without making a save, and Al-Hilal’s night lurched from awkward to alarming.

The own goal landed just as Al-Hilal were still trying to process Bounou’s absence. Inzaghi suddenly found himself chasing a game against opponents who had arrived full of belief and now had the scoreline to match it.

Al-Owais error deepens the damage

The nerves never really eased. Every Neom attack seemed to stretch an already fragile structure, and the stand-in goalkeeper could not calm things down.

Then came the 44th minute.

Al-Owais rushed off his line, misreading the situation badly. The ball broke loose, chaos reigned around the Neom penalty area, and Amadou Koné reacted quickest to punish the confusion and double the hosts’ lead.

What began as an enforced change had spiralled into a full-blown crisis. Bounou’s sudden exit left a void Al-Owais could not fill on the night, while the Koulibaly-led defence crumbled under pressure and handed Neom a two-goal cushion.

History on Neom’s side

The scoreline was bad enough. The numbers behind it made it worse.

Opta data underlined the scale of the task facing Al-Hilal: Neom had won all three matches this season in which they scored first across the opening five rounds of the Roshn League. Once they struck the opening blow, they did not let teams back in.

Now they had two.

That statistic loomed large over the second half before it had even begun. Al-Hilal, who came into the sixth round with a flawless record of five wins from five and 15 points in the bank, suddenly found their smooth start wrecked by one injury and a string of individual mistakes.

A rare sight for Al-Hilal

Seeing Al-Hilal 0-2 down at the break in the Pro League is almost unheard of. The last time they trudged into the dressing room trailing by two or more goals at half-time was against Al-Fateh in May 2025, when they also found themselves 2-0 behind.

On that occasion, they roared back to win 4-3.

This time, the question was different: with Bounou out, Al-Owais under scrutiny, and Neom armed with a perfect record when scoring first, could Al-Hilal summon another comeback – or was this the night their early-season authority finally cracked?