Portimao (AFP)
The Saudi national team escaped a third loss in a row, led by its new Italian coach, Roberto Mancini, when it snatched a fatal draw from its Nigerian counterpart, 2-2, at Portimao Stadium in Portugal in a friendly international match.
The Saudi team was the first to score, through the “substitute” Al Hilal midfielder Salman Al-Faraj in the 60th minute, but Nigeria equalized with “friendly fire,” when Al-Nasr defender Abdel-Ilah Al-Omari accidentally scored against his country’s team “73.”
Leicester City’s English striker, Kelechi Iheanacho, scored in the 81st minute, before the other “substitute”, Al Hilal midfielder Mohamed Kanou, also saved Saudi Arabia from loss, by scoring the equalizer in the tenth minute of stoppage time.
This is the second match between the Saudi and Nigerian teams, after the first in 2010 in Austria, which ended in a goalless draw.
Saudi Arabia played two friendly matches in the English city of Newcastle last September, led by Mancini, and lost the first to Costa Rica 1-3, and the second to South Korea 0-1.
Saudi Arabia stopped the series of consecutive defeats it suffered in its last six matches, including two in the Gulf Cup against Oman and Iraq with one score, 1-2, last January, then in 4 friendly matches against Venezuela and Bolivia last March, both with a score of 1-2 as well, before losing. Again against Costa Rica and then South Korea.
The match was part of the third stage of the “Green” preparations for the World Cup qualifiers, which will start next November, and the Asian Cup, scheduled for Qatar early next year.
Saudi Arabia plays in Group Six of the Asian Cup, alongside the teams of Thailand, Kyrgyzstan and Oman, hoping to win its fourth title after 1984, 1988 and 1996.
Saudi Arabia will play a second friendly match next Tuesday against Mali.
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