{"id":9012,"date":"2024-10-30T11:34:29","date_gmt":"2024-10-30T10:34:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/?p=9012"},"modified":"2024-10-30T11:34:29","modified_gmt":"2024-10-30T10:34:29","slug":"derby-week-kicks-off-in-the-saudi-pro-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/?p=9012","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Derby Week&#8221; Kicks Off in the Saudi Pro League"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Riyadh, October 30, 2024<\/strong> \u2013 Football fans in Saudi Arabia are eagerly anticipating the highly anticipated <strong>&#8220;Derby Week&#8221;<\/strong> in the Saudi Pro League, a new feature of the tournament aimed at amplifying excitement and drawing greater attention to the league. The action begins <strong>tomorrow, Thursday<\/strong>, when <strong>Al-Ittihad<\/strong> hosts its traditional rivals, <strong>Al-Ahli<\/strong>, followed by a thrilling encounter on <strong>Friday<\/strong>, where defending champions <strong>Al-Hilal<\/strong> take on <strong>Al-Nassr<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A New Tradition for More Excitement<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The Saudi Pro League announced <strong>Derby Week<\/strong> back in <strong>July 2024<\/strong>, stating that dedicating a week to showcase the league&#8217;s biggest rivalries is intended to <strong>&#8220;add more excitement&#8221;<\/strong> to the tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Current League Standings<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Al-Hilal<\/strong> tops the table with <strong>24 points<\/strong>, leading <strong>Al-Ittihad<\/strong> by three points.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Al-Nassr<\/strong> trails in third with <strong>18 points<\/strong> after a 3-3 draw against Al-Kholood in their previous match, a game marked by the absence of their star forward, <strong>Cristiano Ronaldo<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Al-Ahli<\/strong>, currently in <strong>eighth place<\/strong> with 11 points, sits four points outside the top four after a 1-1 draw with <strong>Al-Okhdood<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Jeddah Derby: Al-Ittihad vs. Al-Ahli<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite a strong start to the season, <strong>Al-Ittihad<\/strong> has only suffered <strong>one defeat in eight matches<\/strong>\u2014a loss to <strong>Al-Hilal<\/strong>. Under the guidance of <strong>Laurent Blanc<\/strong>, Al-Ittihad aims to secure its <strong>fifth consecutive victory<\/strong> when it hosts fierce rivals <strong>Al-Ahli<\/strong> at the <strong>Jeddah Derby<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While N&#8217;Golo Kant\u00e9 scored the only goal in their <strong>1-0 victory<\/strong> against Al-Riyadh last week, the team\u2019s performance left fans wanting more. However, coach Blanc emphasized that <em>&#8220;winning is what matters, even if the level of play isn\u2019t at its best.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Al-Ahli<\/strong>, meanwhile, is struggling to carry its stellar <strong>Asian Champions League form<\/strong> into the domestic league. Despite <strong>a perfect record in their first three group-stage matches in the western region<\/strong>, coach <strong>Matthias Jaissle<\/strong> has found success harder to come by in the Saudi Pro League. Al-Ahli has endured <strong>three losses and two draws<\/strong> in domestic competition, and was also <strong>eliminated from the King\u2019s Cup<\/strong> by <strong>Al-Jandal<\/strong>, a second-division team, in the Round of 32.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Local reports suggest that Jaissle&#8217;s position at the club is under scrutiny, with <strong>speculation of his departure resurfacing after every poor result<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>For the full article, visit: <a href=\"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\">DZWATCH.DZ<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Author<\/strong>: nor-eleslam<br>Saudi Pro League, Derby Week, Al-Hilal vs Al-Nassr, Al-Ittihad vs Al-Ahli<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Riyadh, October 30, 2024 \u2013 Football fans in Saudi Arabia are eagerly anticipating the highly anticipated &#8220;Derby Week&#8221; in the Saudi Pro League, a new feature of the tournament aimed at amplifying excitement and drawing greater attention to the league. The action begins tomorrow, Thursday, when Al-Ittihad hosts its traditional rivals, Al-Ahli, followed by a &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9013,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","iawp_total_views":8,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9012"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9014,"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9012\/revisions\/9014"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}