Without the injured Karim Benzema, Al-Ittihad lost to Al-Hilal in the Asian Champions League and N’Golo Kanté was sent off for a nasty foul on Kalidou Koulibaly. The 2018 world champion is sent off for the second time in his career and his previous red card dates back to his time in Caen!
The poor season of Al-Ittihad, reigning Saudi Arabian champions, continues. Without Karim Benzema, unavailable due to a muscle injury, Al-Ittihad lost against Al-Hilal (3-1), the imposing leader of the Saudi Pro League, last Friday, and followed up with a 2-0 defeat against the same opponent on Tuesday in the quarter-final first leg of the Asian Champions League.
Before half-time, the essential Aleksandar Mitrovic (40th from the penalty spot) and Salem Al Dawsari (42nd) validated the domination of this team led by Portuguese veteran Juan Jesus.
Ittihad never managed to reduce the gap, especially as the Jeddah team found itself 10 against 11 after the exclusion of N’Golo Kanté in the 66th minute for a sole on the ankle of Kalidou Koulibaly , his teammate at Chelsea last year. The video assistant called the central referee to inform him of a possible exclusion.
Kanté excluded in 2014!
Also as crazy as it sounds, the 2018 world champion received a straight red card for the very first time in his career. His crazy series without exclusion stops in Saudi Arabia. Until then, he had only seen red once in his career, with Caen against Stade Rennais in August 2014. At the time, Romain Danzé and Sylvain Armand were still playing…
The two teams meet again in a week, in the lair of Al-Ittihad, with Kanté obviously suspended and “KB9” probably out again.
