Ittihad Jeddah fell to its host Damac 1-3, in the match that brought them together today, Thursday, at Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Sports City Stadium, in the 16th round of the Saudi League.

Kevin Nkoudou (two goals) scored for Damak in the 12th and 45+6 minutes, and Tariq Hamed (47), while Abdel Razzaq Hamdallah scored for Al Ittihad (45+3) from a penalty kick.

With this result, Al-Ittihad’s balance temporarily froze at 28 points in fourth place, while Damak and Sidon rose to 24 points to temporarily rise to sixth place.

Al-Ittihad started the match energetically, and Hamdallah almost opened the scoring early, when Kante passed a magic ball to the Moroccan executioner, who faced the goal, but his shot went past the post.

Damak benefited from a quick counterattack, led by its Cameroonian striker Kevin Nkoudou, who shot a powerful ball that landed in Grohe's net, giving his team the lead in the 12th minute.

Argentine Marcelo Gallardo, Al-Ittihad's coach, replaced Mohannad Al-Shanqiti, instead of Brazilian Felipe Luiz, who left the field injured.

The match referee awarded a penalty kick in favor of Al-Ittihad, in the last minutes of the half after returning to video technology, due to the Damak goalkeeper obstructing Marwan Al-Sahafi. The Moroccan Hamdallah succeeded in converting it successfully to equalize the score for his team.

Al-Ittihad's joy lasted only 3 minutes, as Nkoudou returned and scored the second goal to end Damak's first half with a lead in the score.

At the beginning of the second half, Egyptian Taq Hamed added the score to Damak, thanks to a missile from outside the penalty area that Grohe failed to intercept.

The tension then took over the Al-Ittihad player, as the match referee showed the yellow card in the face of Abdel-Razzaq Hamdallah, because he needed the arbitration decisions.

Al-Ittihad players asked the match referee to award a penalty kick in the 73rd minute, due to Hamdallah falling in the penalty area, but the referee ordered the game to continue after returning to video technology.

Minutes before the end of the match, Damak threatened Al-Ittihad's goal on more than one occasion, but his attempts did not succeed in adding the fourth goal, so the referee blew his whistle, announcing Damak's deserved victory 3-1.