Al-Hilal's Perfect Start Ends in NEOM Defeat

Al-Hilal arrived looking untouchable. Five wins on the spin, top of the Roshn League, and a squad brimming with stars. Then the night cracked before a ball was even kicked.

Yassine Bounou pulled up injured in the warm-up, a sharp twist in the script that forced Simone Inzaghi to turn to Mohammed Al-Owais at the last minute. One of the league’s most reliable goalkeepers was suddenly out of the picture. The mood shifted. So did the match.

From the first whistle, NEOM smelled vulnerability.

They set up compact and aggressive, lines tight, distances short. Every Al-Hilal touch in the final third came with a body in the way, a leg stuck out, a passing lane closed. The Blues’ usual fluency vanished into a crowd of dark shirts.

The punishment came early.

On 15 minutes, Kalidou Koulibaly, usually the rock at the back, became the unwitting villain. Under pressure, he turned the ball into his own net, handing NEOM a shock lead and ripping through Al-Hilal’s early plans. One moment of misfortune, and the leaders were chasing.

Al-Hilal tried to respond with authority, but kept running into a wall.

Sultan Al-Ghannam pushed on, Krisencio Summerville drifted inside, the shots came – from range, from awkward angles – and almost all of them ended the same way: wide, blocked, or comfortable for NEOM. The hosts suffocated the space between the lines and refused to be drawn out. Every Al-Hilal attack felt rushed, forced, just off the rhythm they had shown all season.

Inzaghi knew he had to change the picture.

After the break, he rolled the dice, sending on Nasser Al-Dawsari, Sultan Mandash and Mohamed Kader Mete to inject pace and energy. The intent was clear: drag NEOM deeper, stretch them, turn pressure into panic.

For a brief spell, it worked.

Gabriel Martinelli found the chance every forward wants. In the 50th minute he burst clear, one-on-one with the NEOM goalkeeper, the game hanging in the balance. He hesitated, misjudged, and the moment slipped away. Three minutes later, Ruben Neves stepped up and curled a trademark effort just past the left post. The leaders were knocking, properly now.

Then Marcin Bulka took over the night.

On 65 minutes, Ollie Watkins rose inside the box and powered a header that looked destined for the corner. Bulka exploded across his line and clawed it away, a save that felt like a turning point as much as a highlight. It wasn’t his only intervention. Time and again he stood firm, beating away Al-Hilal efforts and turning growing pressure into growing frustration.

With their goalkeeper in command and their back line locked in, NEOM tightened the screw.

They slowed the tempo, managed every duel, and dragged Al-Hilal into a stop-start battle that suited the hosts far more than the league leaders. The minutes drained away. So did Al-Hilal’s belief.

When the final whistle went, NEOM had their prize: a controlled, hard-earned 2-0 victory and three precious points that pushed them up to 12 in the table, their fourth win of the campaign. Al-Hilal stayed on 15, their perfect start gone and their aura of domestic invincibility cracked.

This was no ordinary defeat for the leaders. It was their first loss in the Roshn League since Simone Inzaghi took charge at the start of last season, a run snapped not by chaos, but by a disciplined side that refused to be overawed and a goalkeeper who refused to be beaten.

Somewhere across the city, Al-Nassr will have watched with interest.

They began the round on 12 points. Now, with Al-Hilal stumbling for the first time, a win over Abha on Wednesday would cut the gap at the top to just a single point. The champions-elect tag never lasts long in this league.

The door has been left slightly ajar. The question now is simple: can anyone force it wide open?