Saudi Professional League 2023/2024

[shogun47]

Again it seems the superstar player of Barcelona Lewandowski got another offer from Saudis and it is time they offered a 150 million offer to this Polish player of Barcelona but Lewandowski rejectted the offer to stay in Barcelona for a longer time, which means Lewandowski is still not interested in leaving his team to saudi arabia even a huge amount of money.
However, I think even Barcelona is still trying to keep Lewandowski and they are not interested in losing him any time soon.

 

https://barcauniversal.com/barcelona-superstar-rejected-e150-million-bumper-offer-from-saudi-wants-to-see-out-contract-at-club/

There's no amount to loosing one of your best favorite life.
LnBarcelona will not dare to sell one of their best player this summer, we know how cruel and confident Robert Lewandowski can do on pitch and the fans have hope in him to deliver in any game, he's the only player capable of winning and boosting goal scoring of Barcelona. Robert Lewandowski is old and he can't meet up the the high demands from the coach, the fans and also the club. He have to adjust, besides he's a top striker but his position comes with enough responsibilities to take care of.

I think what speaks against this rumor is that Lewandowski already declined a huge offer from one club from the Saudi Professional League and he said that it is unlikely he will play there because Barcelona was one of his dreams and he wants to feel comfortable together with his family. I know that money can change peoples' minds, but I remember that he said something that sounded very definitive. Playing for Barcelona even when they are not in the best condition at the moment is probably connected to better life quality than playing in Saudi Arabia and he also has kids. Making the right choice for them as well is also important.

[Leviathan.007]

Al Hilal are undefeated in the league in 17 matches. They assembled a great team. Although most people know Al Nassr because of Cristiano Ronaldo, Al Hilal is a team with a better quality squad. Al Nassr is missing one match and there is currently a 10 point difference between them. The championship is now a difficult possibility for Al Nassr. Still, having competition makes the league better.

Al Hilal successfully defeated their opposing team in the 17th match of the Saudi Pro League, playing at home was an easy match for Jorge Jesus' squad. we can refer to the statistics of the match, Al Hilal doesn't seem to have given Al Wehda many opportunities to control the ball. Not many goals were scored in this match, but that was more than enough for Al Hilal to continue its positive trend. Al Hilal controlled 71% ball possession, 18 total shots, 7 shots on target, 5 big chances and 2 chances converted into goals. Likewise, based on technical matters, Al Hilal is much better than the opposing team. In this match, Mitrovic was again able to show his abilities, this player is a specialist in heading to score goals. He has scored many goals, thanks to his headers. Meanwhile, Al Wehda did not offer much resistance apart from holding back attacks from the Al Hilal squad. they only had 2 shots on target, and 1 big chance. As a result, Al Hilal widened the points gap from the teams below them. Well, now the goal difference between Motivic and Ronaldo is only one goal. which means, Mitrovic has the potential to surpass Ronaldo as the Saudi Pro League goal scorer. If Al Hilal remains on a positive track, Mitrovic's potential is large enough to add to his goal collection.

As for Al Nassr, they still have a break when they host Al Etiffaq. because previously, Al Nassr played an away match against Al Shabab and they beat the Al Shabab team with a score of 2-5. So, we will watch the Al Nassr vs Etiffaq match on the 22nd. In other words, next week's match and Ronaldo will have to score a lot of goals to keep his distance from Mitrovic. but on the same day, Al Hilal also played their match against Ahba. However, Al Nassr has one match postponed. Unfortunately, this will not have an effect if Al Hilal always continues with a positive trend. Now, the two teams are 10 points apart.

Al Hilal won another match in the Saudi League and this time against Al Wehda they won the game with a 2-0 result.
The interesting point about this game is again they couldn't score any goals against Al Hial and this is amazing for Al Hial this season.
It seems the defenders of Al Hilal had a much better performance than any teams in this league and that's one good reason for Al Hial to stay in the first place of the league.
Also, this win against Al Wehda was the consecutive 18th win of Al Hilal this season.

[makishart]

Again it seems the superstar player of Barcelona Lewandowski got another offer from Saudis and it is time they offered a 150 million offer to this Polish player of Barcelona but Lewandowski rejectted the offer to stay in Barcelona for a longer time, which means Lewandowski is still not interested in leaving his team to saudi arabia even a huge amount of money.
However, I think even Barcelona is still trying to keep Lewandowski and they are not interested in losing him any time soon.

Yeah, another stupid decision from him. It may give him joy to stay even longer in the barcelona but this is obviously a boomerang for barcelona. Barcelona really needs money to get the new player but having him to choose to stay much longer is totally bad for the club. There will be no fresh money from saudi pro league club. We may be seeing barcelona will try to threatening him soon to forst lewandowski to leave from the club. Barcelona wants sell him before his contract will be running out.

Even though barcelona has a few years remaining for lewandowski's contract but the club is also in another trouble caused by it has no money to buy the new players from other club, barcelona needs a new young striker that can replace lewandowski and some candidates have been lined up.
The only problem is about the money. Barcelona is a club with the worst financial problem in la liga. The club is feeling even more difficult to get money to buy the new players.

Selling the old players have become the best answer for this situation. The only problem lewandowskis prefers to follow his ego to stay much longer in the club rather than goes to the suadi pro league to play with many big players theer.

[Docnaster]

Again it seems the superstar player of Barcelona Lewandowski got another offer from Saudis and it is time they offered a 150 million offer to this Polish player of Barcelona but Lewandowski rejectted the offer to stay in Barcelona for a longer time, which means Lewandowski is still not interested in leaving his team to saudi arabia even a huge amount of money.
However, I think even Barcelona is still trying to keep Lewandowski and they are not interested in losing him any time soon.

 

https://barcauniversal.com/barcelona-superstar-rejected-e150-million-bumper-offer-from-saudi-wants-to-see-out-contract-at-club/

Robert Lewandowski has been one if the best players in Europe for more the past decade and considering all his achievement in football, I think he can boldly say that he's delivered great performance and impact in European football of the past twelve year. If truly he has received offers by the Saudi teams, I don't think player of his age and achievement will want to remain at Barcelona when he knows he can't be as impactful as he was when he was younger.
Lewandowski undoubtedly will make a good signing for any Saudi team if he gets the chance because the league isn't as competitive as the leagues the Poland has played all his life in Europe. From my own personal perspective about Lewandowski's future, I think the Polish striker is definitely gonna leave the Camp Nou next summer and a move to the Saudi Pro League wouldn't be a bad idea since their financial packages are always juicy.

[FinePoine0]

Benzima missed the opportunity to draw the match on Club World  Cup with a penalty against Al Ahly SC, even that he scored in last minutes but for nothing since they received 3 goals. The level between both teams was so obvious and tells us that even with all the money spent on players, some other Leagues are better than SPL and proves that football academies are the grail for a better future in Saudi football leagues.
Most expensive players Saudi brought to their tems, and honestly Ronaldo was the first and best player that provided much to his team and playing better, regardless to his age, he could be the best scorer and created many goals and chances as well.

I never expected Al Ittihad to present such a poor performance to the visitors. As Al Ittihad has experienced and current best striker like Karim Benzema in Al Ittihad team. Al Ahli put in enough effort to win and scored the most goals despite attacking less. Al Ahli team's goalkeeper and defense department, attack department were all strong due to which they lost to a strong team like Al Ittihad. Al Ittihad had the most attacks but could not succeed in any way. Al Ittihar team received a total of six corner kicks, but none were successful. Al Ittihad lost 3-1 after failing in the last phase.

[Hirose UK]

~snip~

In fact, if you only dream of seeing Messi join the Saudi Pro League, it will definitely be very interesting to see the two stars competing with each other with their own skills, but it won't be that easy because not only is his wife forbidding him, but Messi actually doesn't want to compete with him anymore. Ronaldo is in the same league and without me explaining it, we definitely know the reasonable reasons why Messi doesn't want to be in the Saudi pro league and what is certain is that there is actually a rivalry that cannot be explained.
If you say the reason Messi can't appear in the Saudi Pro League is because of his age, look at Ronaldo's age with Messi being much younger than Ronaldo and age is not the main reason but another, stronger reason makes him not want to join the Saudi Pro League.
What is certain is that even though Messi doesn't want to join the Saudi Pro League, it still looks attractive because of Ronaldo and other European players. It's just that I want to immediately see Benzema be able to display his talents like when he was at Real Madrid and compete with Ronaldo in terms of scores.
But it seems like Benzema is still having difficulty appearing strong because he doesn't have strong chemistry with other players or maybe Benzema needs European players who can contribute to Benzema always scoring scores.

The rivalry that Ronaldo and Messi have experienced has been going on since they were young and Ronaldo relationship with Messi has also become football history, as the rivalry between these two star players has been around for quite long time in European football.
I came to think that actually, if we talk about playing abilities and skills, it is clear that Ronaldo is superior to Messi in every aspect, maybe this is one of the reasons why Messi doesn't want to continue their rivalry in the same league.
It true that age doesn't affect anything and Messi is 2 years younger than Ronaldo, but the truly great one is Ronaldo, at 38 years old he can still be successful with Al Nassr.
He also managed to become the only player who has given Al Nassr surprising victory because just look every time Al Nassr falls behind, Ronaldo can suddenly score several goals for a victory, incidents like this happen not just once or twice.
It looks like Ronaldo will actually spend his retirement and career with Al Nassr for the SPL.

Benzema has been in decline since the start of the season and maybe he needs players who suit him to be able to understand what he does in every attack.

[Strongkored]

Benzima missed the opportunity to draw the match on Club World  Cup with a penalty against Al Ahly SC, even that he scored in last minutes but for nothing since they received 3 goals. The level between both teams was so obvious and tells us that even with all the money spent on players, some other Leagues are better than SPL and proves that football academies are the grail for a better future in Saudi football leagues.
Most expensive players Saudi brought to their tems, and honestly Ronaldo was the first and best player that provided much to his team and playing better, regardless to his age, he could be the best scorer and created many goals and chances as well.

A missed penalty by Karim Benzema might have changed the course of the match but unfortunately, it didn't happen and their opponents played very well and the three goals scored against Ittihad FC prove that their defense is quite bad this season which is why in the Saudi pro league they experienced a decline quite a lot.
Karim Benzema did not perform at Ittihad FC as expected by the club, but this could be because he did not get a good ball supply in every attack from the Ittihad midfielder.
With Karim Benzema not performing well, it might be a consideration for Ittihad to look for a new striker who is younger and sharper, and I'm sure whatever the value of the striker is not a problem for Ittihad because they are owned by a rich company.

[Richbased]

Benzima missed the opportunity to draw the match on Club World  Cup with a penalty against Al Ahly SC, even that he scored in last minutes but for nothing since they received 3 goals. The level between both teams was so obvious and tells us that even with all the money spent on players, some other Leagues are better than SPL and proves that football academies are the grail for a better future in Saudi football leagues.
Most expensive players Saudi brought to their tems, and honestly Ronaldo was the first and best player that provided much to his team and playing better, regardless to his age, he could be the best scorer and created many goals and chances as well.

The game would have been more difficult and they might have had a chance to win or at least dominate the game more if Benzema had leveled the score with that penalty. However, it has happened that they lose 3-1 against a team in the Egyptian Premier League that is somewhat inferior to Al Hilal because of the caliber of its players. That's football, though, so anything can happen, and that's what happened in this match. Since Benzema scored one goal before to the finish of the game, hopefully they won't hold him responsible for not scoring the penalty.

Benzima missing penalty wasn't really enough to put the blame for them losing that match to Al Ahly because even if he scored the penalty the score would have been 3:2 so it really doesn't make any difference moreover players sometimes misses penalties so him missing a penalty isn't a big deal. Referring to Al Ahly as an inferior club means you don't follow up Egyptian league if not you would have known that Al Ahly and Zamalek mostly dominate the Egyptian league so if not for high rated players like Benzema I see no reason why Al Ahly strength can't be matched up with Al Ittihad of Saudi Arabia.

[rendravolt]

Al Hilal won another match in the Saudi League and this time against Al Wehda they won the game with a 2-0 result.
The interesting point about this game is again they couldn't score any goals against Al Hial and this is amazing for Al Hial this season.
It seems the defenders of Al Hilal had a much better performance than any teams in this league and that's one good reason for Al Hial to stay in the first place of the league.
Also, this win against Al Wehda was the consecutive 18th win of Al Hilal this season.

In this match Aleksandar Mitrovic also scored another goal which helped Al-Hilal to seal victory at home. This additional goal means that Aleksandar Mitrovic has collected 15 goals so far and is only one goal behind Cristiano Ronaldo, who has currently scored 16 goals.

This result also makes Al-Hilal maintain its unbeaten record and if they continue like this then it is very possible for Al-Hilal to win the Saudi league title this season. This is because the difference with Al-Nassr is 10 points at the moment so it will be difficult for Al-Nassr to shorten that distance. Talking about Al-Nassr, they will only play a match next week against Al-Ettifaq and Cristiano and his friends must win this match to continue to approach Al-Hilal.

[anjiitem]

Benzima missing penalty wasn't really enough to put the blame for them losing that match to Al Ahly because even if he scored the penalty the score would have been 3:2 so it really doesn't make any difference moreover players sometimes misses penalties so him missing a penalty isn't a big deal. Referring to Al Ahly as an inferior club means you don't follow up Egyptian league if not you would have known that Al Ahly and Zamalek mostly dominate the Egyptian league so if not for high rated players like Benzema I see no reason why Al Ahly strength can't be matched up with Al Ittihad of Saudi Arabia.

Al Ahly is not a weak team. it's just that I'm sure more people are betting on Ittihad winning, they sound more popular.
It's not a problem that Benzema failed to score from a penalty. but if it had been a goal the match situation would have been different. and that could affect the result of the match, Ittihad could have been stronger after equalizing the score.
but the conditions allowed Al Ahly to win. they are strong enough to beat Ittihad and I think Benzema and the team must be aware of the strength of their opponents.

[BRINIRHA]

Again it seems the superstar player of Barcelona Lewandowski got another offer from Saudis and it is time they offered a 150 million offer to this Polish player of Barcelona but Lewandowski rejectted the offer to stay in Barcelona for a longer time, which means Lewandowski is still not interested in leaving his team to saudi arabia even a huge amount of money.
However, I think even Barcelona is still trying to keep Lewandowski and they are not interested in losing him any time soon.

 

https://barcauniversal.com/barcelona-superstar-rejected-e150-million-bumper-offer-from-saudi-wants-to-see-out-contract-at-club/

In the transfer market last summer, Lewandowski received an offer from an Arab club worth €150 million but he rejected the new offer. And now there is news circulating about Arab clubs starting to approach him again. Even Barcelona seems open to this offer. Because after all, the club will definitely benefit financially if Lewandowski is willing to accept the offer from the Arab club. But once again Lewandowski seems determined to reject the offer again. It seems he intends to stay at Barcelona until his contract ends. But his performance, which has often not been optimal this season, has caused concern for the Barcelona squad. Because if Lewandowski starts to lose his goal productivity then of course that will be bad for Barcelona. But I'm sure Lewandowski's quality of play will be very useful in the Arab league. Because the competition in the Arab League is much lighter for players who are no longer young like him. Because after all, Lewandowski is already 35 years old now. So it's normal if performance decreases. And he will definitely have a little difficulty competing in European football.

[hd49728]

Again it seems the superstar player of Barcelona Lewandowski got another offer from Saudis and it is time they offered a 150 million offer to this Polish player of Barcelona but Lewandowski rejectted the offer to stay in Barcelona for a longer time, which means Lewandowski is still not interested in leaving his team to saudi arabia even a huge amount of money.
However, I think even Barcelona is still trying to keep Lewandowski and they are not interested in losing him any time soon.

 

https://barcauniversal.com/barcelona-superstar-rejected-e150-million-bumper-offer-from-saudi-wants-to-see-out-contract-at-club/

At the age of Lewandowski and with his past success in Europe, he has many reasons to leave Barcelona and Europe to join Saudi Professional League. If Cristiano Ronaldo, Benzema, Mane, Neymar could make such big decisions for their career, Lewandowski can make a same important decision. It is hard to reject those lucrative offers from Saudi Professional League clubs when Robert has only some years to play before his retirement.

Barcelona will let him go if they receive enough money to rebuild their squad with new strikers who are younger than Lewandowski or even can use those money to improve other positions like midfield or defensive positions.

[temple]

The SPL is a growing league with teams doing very well at what they do. We can mention a few of the teams as not just Al Nassr being the only ones doing well. The various team performances are beneficial to the leagues growth and expansion, adding to the promptness to be a part of the UEFA race. It's a good push to the best that a team can portray.

 Al Nassr are still standing really out in the league and then the likes of Al Hilal and the other teams. The combination of local and foreign players in the league promoted unity and bond with nations too, even increases fans favouritism. It's just beautiful to watch how football in the Asian side has become so beautiful, shifting down the attention of other nations to see the wonders that the SPL are doing. The league is still running and race for the trophy is on too. The final table standing is awaited.

How come that you believe Al-Nassr is standing out? What did they accomplish?

Last season Al-Ittihad won the Saudi Professional League and this season Al-Nassr is failing again at reaching their goals. They are now 10 points behind Al-Hilal, which is a fiasco to say the least.

The football in Asia hasn't changed all that much. They tried to import some quality with a lot of money, but what kind of sustainable change it has produced remains to be seen.

[borovichok]

Benzima missed the opportunity to draw the match on Club World  Cup with a penalty against Al Ahly SC, even that he scored in last minutes but for nothing since they received 3 goals. The level between both teams was so obvious and tells us that even with all the money spent on players, some other Leagues are better than SPL and proves that football academies are the grail for a better future in Saudi football leagues.
Most expensive players Saudi brought to their tems, and honestly Ronaldo was the first and best player that provided much to his team and playing better, regardless to his age, he could be the best scorer and created many goals and chances as well.

Al-Ittihad just have to spot out another solid and confident PK taker because Benzema really messed up their chances to equalize this game right from first half. It's balance for a top player to missed a penalty but not in matches that your club is aiming to draw points or in a situation to win matches. Karim Benzema was a position to level the scores but he failed to redeem the hope of his team and El Ahly Cairo took another chance to double the scoring and made it 3-0 before Karim Benzema was able to net a goal to ease the pressure on Al-Ittihad on the pitch.

[Awaklara]

Barcelona will let him go if they receive enough money to rebuild their squad with new strikers who are younger than Lewandowski or even can use those money to improve other positions like midfield or defensive positions.

it's very possible, Lewandowski is not cheap for Barcelona. and selling him to bring in new, younger players who suit Xavi's wishes is certainly a very likely option for Barcelona.
There have even been rumors regarding Barcelona wanting to bring in players to strengthen their midfielders. and maybe with Barcelona's current situation, selling Lewandowski to an Arab club at a high price is the best option to get good finances before the transfer market opens.

[Solokan]

Again it seems the superstar player of Barcelona Lewandowski got another offer from Saudis and it is time they offered a 150 million offer to this Polish player of Barcelona but Lewandowski rejectted the offer to stay in Barcelona for a longer time, which means Lewandowski is still not interested in leaving his team to saudi arabia even a huge amount of money.
However, I think even Barcelona is still trying to keep Lewandowski and they are not interested in losing him any time soon.

 

https://barcauniversal.com/barcelona-superstar-rejected-e150-million-bumper-offer-from-saudi-wants-to-see-out-contract-at-club/

Of course Lewandowski is enjoying himself at Barcelona and he seems to be really needed by Barcelona and indeed if Lewandowski goes to Arabia then of course the Saudi Arabian league will be more lively because of Lewandowski's arrival and of course it will bring a club that includes Lewandowski which will have good potential because Lewandowski is very he was good at his game and I saw that when Barcelona played against Girona he performed well and at that time he scored a goal but unfortunately at that time Girona won the match with a score of 2-4.Barcelona definitely doesn't want to lose Lewandowski because if Lewandowski leaves Barcelona I think it will make Barcelona lose its performance. Yes, we'll see what the Arab League will do in the future.

[Jody.Drummer]

Barcelona will let him go if they receive enough money to rebuild their squad with new strikers who are younger than Lewandowski or even can use those money to improve other positions like midfield or defensive positions.

it's very possible, Lewandowski is not cheap for Barcelona. and selling him to bring in new, younger players who suit Xavi's wishes is certainly a very likely option for Barcelona.
There have even been rumors regarding Barcelona wanting to bring in players to strengthen their midfielders. and maybe with Barcelona's current situation, selling Lewandowski to an Arab club at a high price is the best option to get good finances before the transfer market opens.

With their current situation, sacrificing players is one way for them to get money and then use it to bring in new players. SPL clubs will usually value players at very fantastic prices, I think clubs in the SPL are the best way for other clubs to get a lot of money. But I'm not too sure Barcelona will sell this player, they have experience where they keep their players even though they are offered at high prices. Frenkie de Jong for example, last season he was one of the players who had a high price, but they still kept him.

[klidex]

It was a good result but the difference with Al-Hilal was still very large. I had doubts about Al-Ahli because with the large squad of European players they have, sometimes they fail to win and the landslide result against Al-Feiha is proof that this team is starting to find its game again. Even though this still wasn't enough, at least they didn't experience a prolonged draw.

I think it is still quite far to put Al-Ahli in title competition with Al-Hilal and at least being able to finish in the top 4 is their best achievement this season. The only team that is able to compete with Al-Hilal is Al-Nassr and even though the difference in points is quite large, at least they are still the closest competitors compared to other teams. Talking about the Al-Hilal vs Al-Wehda match, it is certain that Al-Hilal will win and with a squad of European players now everything will be easier.

The difference in points between Al Ahli and Al Hilal is 13 points because Al Hilal also won today's match. Of course, Al Ahli needs lots of wins in the upcoming matches if they want to reduce their lag behind Al Hilal. By the way, Al Hilal was able to maintain the winning trend because they managed to get 3 points in the 17th match of this season. I see this match as one-sided or a half-field game because Al Hilal did not provide space for Al Wahda to threaten their goal. Al Hilal has never lost and that is a pretty good performance that they can maintain until the league has run 17 matches.

Al Nassr, who is in 2nd place, is also 10 points behind Al Hilal, who leads the standings. So this gap in points will certainly make Al Hilal sit comfortably at the top of the standings. I think this season Al Hilal can lock up the title early because they are so consistent in winning every match. Mitrovic also played a part in scoring goals in today's match and he is one of the players who is quite productive in scoring goals this season, he is only behind Ronaldo.

The difference in points is quite large, of course it is not easy to catch up because in the next match it cannot be confirmed whether Al Ahli will be able to achieve consecutive wins because their performance is not that strong when compared to Al Hilal who have a more consistent performance and have not lost.
As long as they still have European players who have good potential and Alexander Mitrovic is not injured, Al Hilal will remain strong in facing various matches in the Saudi Pro League and it will not be easy for other clubs to make Al Hilal slip because Al Hilal has a strong squad balanced.

Al Nassr, who was able to put pressure on Al Hilal, in the end was also quite far behind, now Al Hilal has been confirmed to lock its position at the top even though the match is still long, but Al Hilal has already locked in half of the journey with a win without defeat.
In the next match Al Hilal will playing more relaxed but still focused on winning even with a narrow score, I don't think it's a problem so far Al Hilal defense is really the strongest in the Saudi Pro League, creating 50 goals in 17 matches and only conceding 9 goals, of course Al Hilal is the club that people fear the most other clubs in the Saudi Pro League include Al Nassr, Al Ahli and Ittihad.

[marcous]

Barcelona will let him go if they receive enough money to rebuild their squad with new strikers who are younger than Lewandowski or even can use those money to improve other positions like midfield or defensive positions.

it's very possible, Lewandowski is not cheap for Barcelona. and selling him to bring in new, younger players who suit Xavi's wishes is certainly a very likely option for Barcelona.
There have even been rumors regarding Barcelona wanting to bring in players to strengthen their midfielders. and maybe with Barcelona's current situation, selling Lewandowski to an Arab club at a high price is the best option to get good finances before the transfer market opens.

Previously, it was reported that Lewandowski was reluctant to continue his career in the SPL, he wanted to end his contract at Barcelona and chose to retire at the club. But things have now changed, Xavi wants a new midfielder as a suitable replacement for Busquets, and one way to realize this plan is to sacrifice Lewandowski to get some money.

Only a few clubs dare to pay a high price for Lewandowski's move from Barcelona, only clubs from the SPL are able and willing to do this. Because, they are building their image and competitive level by recruiting European players. I think with a tempting offer and luxurious facilities, it could be an effective attraction to plow him away from La Liga and be willing to move to the SPL.

It is indeed time for Lewandowski to look for a new challenge that suits his current stamina, because age is indeed a scourge that is a factor in his declining sharpness on Barcelona's front line. SPL could be the right port, and could make him a sharp striker, because the competitive level is still far from La Liga.

[wiss19]

Benzima missing penalty wasn't really enough to put the blame for them losing that match to Al Ahly because even if he scored the penalty the score would have been 3:2 so it really doesn't make any difference moreover players sometimes misses penalties so him missing a penalty isn't a big deal. Referring to Al Ahly as an inferior club means you don't follow up Egyptian league if not you would have known that Al Ahly and Zamalek mostly dominate the Egyptian league so if not for high rated players like Benzema I see no reason why Al Ahly strength can't be matched up with Al Ittihad of Saudi Arabia.

Al Ahly is not a weak team. it's just that I'm sure more people are betting on Ittihad winning, they sound more popular.
It's not a problem that Benzema failed to score from a penalty. but if it had been a goal the match situation would have been different. and that could affect the result of the match, Ittihad could have been stronger after equalizing the score.
but the conditions allowed Al Ahly to win. they are strong enough to beat Ittihad and I think Benzema and the team must be aware of the strength of their opponents.

I agree, Al Ahly came from African Continent and Al Ittihad having Suadi Connection with match was also playing at Jeddah which give impression they can win this match but Al Ahly done good job and having early lead with Karim Benzema's missed penalty give them edge and in second half they play more aggressive which allow them to have more goals which was good performance, and they are also having good experienced squad which not allowed Al Ittihad for having anything positive from this match.

Al Ahly having good control into African soccer, and they are Egyptian leading soccer club which is producing few good quality players as well but due to recently hype of Saudi League peoples put money on Al Ittihad with few European players are also in which make things more problematic for the punters.