UD Almería played a friendly match this Sunday against Al Hilal of Saudi Arabia. The surprise of the meeting came at the time of giving the line-ups, where Umar Sadiq is not, who is probably in the process of settling his future. The Arab team have some old acquaintances from LaLiga, like Luciano Vietto. Then there are others like Al-Dawsari, who was with Villarreal CF for a while.
Turki took to the pitch to greet the players and Al Hilal coach Ramón Díaz as the team’s loyal supporter.
The match started with the Saudi team very well planted on the pitch and from the second minute of the game they put Fernando to work. After a corner, Luciano Vietto managed to push a ball into the net after an uproar in the box and made it 0-1 on the scoreboard.
It was a monologue throughout the first part of Al Hilal. The Saudi team had possession and except for a timid shot from Ramazani, the rest of the chances were for the opposing team.
Fernando was doing everything he could to stop Al Hilal’s attack. Until finally in the 40th minute, Al-Dawsari managed to put the second on the scoreboard with a cross shot.
Without further ado, the two teams went to the locker rooms at halftime.
In the second half, Al Hilal introduced a whole new team. Almería only made two changes: César de la Hoz for Kaiky and Appiah for Lazo. The Englishman was very active and sometimes ran with danger in attack.
The worst news came in the 55th minute of the match, when Arnau Puigmal felt a puncture and sounded the alarm about a possible injury. The Catalan player had to leave the field of play and Robertone entered in his place. Things changed in the second half, but the rojiblancos couldn’t put on any dangerous play. Eguaras was seen with little support, as they attempted to search for Ramazani without success.
With Curro coming on in the 70th minute, there was a little more danger from set pieces from wide crosses. Rubi has switched to a three centre-back system to try and deepen the attack. In one of the balls in the back in the direction of Ramazani, the Belgian player was knocked down in the box in the 84th minute and the referee awarded the maximum penalty.
Ramazani was responsible for converting the penalty, right of the goalkeeper and low, and they managed to close some distance in the result. On the next kick-off, it was again Ramazani who stole the defender’s bag and got in front of the goalkeeper. A goalkeeper who was splendid in the second half. However, on this occasion, the 32 from Almería failed to score in the one against the goalkeeper.
On a final chance for Robertone, the chance for UD Almería to achieve a scoreboard tie slipped away. He still has a lot to improve, especially in defense, although now that Sadiq’s future is still up in the air they could still use a big prop in attack. Almería’s next away game will be against Real Madrid at the start of La Liga.
Data sheet:
– Eleven of UD Almería: Fernando, Mendes, Kaiky (45′ De la Hoz), Rodrigo Ely, Sergio Akieme, Portillo, Samú Costa, Íñigo Eguaras, Arnau Puigmal (55′ Robertone), Lazo (45′ Appiah) and Ramazani.
– Eleven of Al Hilal SFC: Al Muaiouf, Saud Abdulhamid, Jang Hyun-Soo, Ali Al-Boleahi, Matheus Pereira, Nasser Al Dawsari, Gustavo Cuéllar, Michael, André Carrillo, Al-Dawsari and Luciano Vietto.
– game venue: Pirelli Stadium Princess Way (Burton, England)