Al-Hilal's Perfect Start Crashes Against Neom
Al-Hilal’s perfect start to the Roshn League campaign crashed into chaos before a ball was even kicked.
In the final moments of the warm-up against Neom, first-choice goalkeeper Yassine Bounou pulled up injured. One minute he was marshalling his box, the next he was out, leaving Simone Inzaghi with no choice but to turn to Mohammed Al-Owais at the last second.
The mood inside the stadium shifted. So did the match.
Bounou out, confusion in
Al-Hilal never settled. With Bounou gone, the defensive line lost its anchor and Neom sensed weakness straight away, swarming forward and forcing mistakes from a back line that suddenly looked unsure of itself.
Al-Owais endured a torrid opening. Misjudged movements, shaky handling, and a back four that failed to protect him combined to give Neom all the encouragement they needed. Every attack seemed to stretch Al-Hilal a little further, every cross a test they were failing.
The pressure told early.
Koulibaly’s own goal opens the door
In the 15th minute, the night worsened. Kalidou Koulibaly, usually the calm head at the heart of Al-Hilal’s defence, glanced a header into his own net, gifting Neom the lead and plunging his side into deeper trouble.
It was a brutal moment. Al-Hilal were still trying to process Bounou’s sudden exit, still trying to adjust to Al-Owais behind them, when Koulibaly’s misdirected header flew past his own goalkeeper.
Neom, already brimming with confidence coming into the match, now had a lead and a rattled giant in front of them. Inzaghi’s task, already complicated by the late goalkeeping change, became even more demanding with his team chasing a game that had barely begun.
Al-Owais error deepens the crisis
Just when Al-Hilal needed calm before half-time, the chaos grew.
In the 44th minute, Al-Owais rushed off his line in a desperate attempt to deal with another Neom attack. The move backfired badly. The ball broke loose, the Al-Hilal defence froze, and in the scramble that followed, Amadou Koné reacted quickest to punish the confusion and make it 2-0 to the hosts.
What started as a setback with Bounou’s injury had turned into a full-blown crisis. Al-Owais could not provide the assurance the Moroccan usually brings, and the back line led by Koulibaly crumbled under pressure, handing Neom a commanding advantage before the interval.
Neom lean on a ruthless record
The scoreline did more than hurt Al-Hilal’s pride; it dragged them into a statistical trap.
Opta numbers underlined the scale of the task. Across the first five rounds of the Roshn League this season, Neom had won all three matches in which they scored the opening goal. Once they struck first, they didn’t let teams back in.
Now they had two. Against a side that knows how to lock a game down, Al-Hilal found themselves staring at a mountain they had helped build with their own mistakes.
This was supposed to be a continuation of a flawless start. Al-Hilal came into the sixth round with five wins from five and 15 points in the bag, looking every inch a title favourite. Instead, the clash with Neom turned into a harsh examination of their depth and composure, exposed by Bounou’s injury and a string of individual errors.
A rare sight for a giant
Trailing 0-2 at half-time is not something Al-Hilal experience often in the Pro League. The last time they went into the break two or more goals down came against Al-Fateh in May 2025, when they also trailed 2-0 at the interval.
On that occasion, they roared back to win 4-3.
The question now is simple: does this team still have that same response in them when the safety net of Yassine Bounou is gone and the margin for error at the top of the Roshn League is shrinking?
