Al-Hilal's Streak Ends as NEOM Claims 2-0 Victory

Al-Hilal’s perfect start to the Roshn League season was ripped up in a night that began with a jolt and never really settled.

They arrived riding five straight wins, top of the table, full of rhythm. Then Yassine Bounou pulled up injured in the warm-up. Plans changed in an instant. Mohammed Al-Owais was thrown in from the bench and the mood shifted from confident to cautious.

NEOM shut the door early

From the first whistle, NEOM looked nothing like a side in awe of the leaders. Compact, disciplined, and aggressive without the ball, they squeezed the life out of Al-Hilal’s usual fluency.

Every time a blue shirt tried to turn between the lines, a white one was already there. Space in front of NEOM’s back line vanished. Sultan Al-Ghannam and Krisencio Summerville found pockets only to see them close just as quickly, their shots drifting in from distance and rarely asking serious questions of Marcin Bulka.

Then came the first real twist.

On 15 minutes, Kalidou Koulibaly, usually the defensive pillar, became the story for all the wrong reasons. Under pressure, he turned the ball into his own net, gifting NEOM a shock lead and tearing up Simone Inzaghi’s script. One moment of misfortune, and suddenly the leaders were chasing.

Al-Hilal tried to respond immediately, pushing higher, circulating the ball quicker, but kept slamming into that same white wall. NEOM’s defensive block held its line, absorbed pressure, and waited for mistakes. The league leaders had the ball; NEOM had control.

Inzaghi rolls the dice

The pattern didn’t change quickly enough for Inzaghi. After the break, he went to his bench, searching for spark and incision. Nasser Al-Dawsari, Sultan Mandash and Mohamed Kader Mete all came on, fresh legs and fresh ideas aimed at dragging Al-Hilal back into the contest.

The chances finally arrived.

On 50 minutes, Gabriel Martinelli got the opening Al-Hilal had been begging for. Clean through on goal, just him and the keeper, he had time to pick his spot. He missed it. The one-on-one slipped away, and with it a golden chance to reset the night.

Three minutes later, Ruben Neves stepped up and almost bent the narrative back in Al-Hilal’s favour. His curling effort from the edge of the box beat Bulka but not the post, sliding just wide of the left upright. The leaders were getting closer, but the ball refused to cooperate.

The pressure was rising. NEOM were starting to drop deeper. It felt like a turning point was coming.

Instead, it was Bulka who seized it.

Bulka slams the door

On 65 minutes, Ollie Watkins met a cross inside the box with a powerful header, the kind of chance that usually drags champions out of trouble. Bulka read it perfectly. The NEOM goalkeeper launched himself across goal and produced a superb save, clawing the ball away and, with it, a large chunk of Al-Hilal’s belief.

It wasn’t a one-off. Bulka had already turned away other Al-Hilal efforts earlier in the half, each stop adding to the frustration of the visitors and the conviction of the hosts. With every save, NEOM grew more sure of themselves.

From there, NEOM tightened their grip on the game. They slowed the tempo, broke up play, managed the clock. Al-Hilal pushed, but the attacks grew more hurried, more hopeful. The cutting edge that had defined their season so far simply never arrived.

When the final whistle went, NEOM had their reward: a 2–0 win, their fourth victory of the campaign, and three points that lifted them to 12 in the table.

A defeat that echoes beyond one night

For Al-Hilal, the numbers sting. They stay on 15 points, their first Roshn League defeat of the season snapping a run of five straight wins. This wasn’t just any loss either: it was their first domestic defeat since Simone Inzaghi took charge at the start of last season.

The aura of invincibility took a hit. The gap at the top is suddenly vulnerable.

And somewhere in Riyadh, Al-Nassr will have watched with interest. They also sit on 12 points going into this round and now know that a win over Abha on Wednesday would slice Al-Hilal’s lead down to a single point.

The leaders have finally stumbled. The question now is simple: was this just one bad night, or the moment the title race truly opened up?