Author: Amrit Santlani
Neymar had a rather dull debut for Al Hilal in the AFC Champions League, as the Brazilian star was lucky not to receive a red card, while his team managed to steal a late point against Navbahor.
The Uzbek club went ahead in the second half through Toma Tabatadze and Neymar was cautioned when Al Hilal were behind.
It wasn’t an ideal start for Al Hilal in their first AFC Champions League group stage clash, with coach Jorge Jesus fielding the likes of Neymar, Ruben Neves, Malcolm and Alexander Mitrovic in the starting line-up.
In the first half, the two teams cancelled each other out and, in the second half, the score remained the same. After Toma opened the scoring in the 52nd minute, Neymar seemed to lose his mind with rage when he tried to take a free-kick quickly. Abror Ismailov tried to slow things down by standing on the ball to prevent Al Hilal’s record signing from restarting the game.
Annoyed at the delay, Neymar pushed his opponent, and Ismailov took advantage of the push and went to the ground and Neymar kicked the ball at him. The referee showed the Brazilian a yellow card for his lack of discipline.
That summed up the former Paris Saint-Germain player’s game, which was ultimately frustrating. Albulayhi scored in the last minute of stoppage time to salvage a point and Al Hilal moved up to second place in the group thanks to their goal difference.
In the other Group D match, Iran’s Nassaji Mazandaran beat India’s Mumbai City FC 2-0 to take the lead in the group.
After making his debut for Al Hilal in the 6-1 win over Al Riyadh, Neymar will be hoping to score his first goal for his new club, who face Damac on Thursday in the Saudi Pro League, with Jesus’ side top of the table.