Al-Raqi tightens its grip on Al-Fateh with four goals and jumps to fifth place

Al-Ahli ran out deserved 4-0 winners away at Al-Fateh on Friday evening at the Mayadeen Al-Oula Finance Stadium in Al-Ahsa, in the Saudi Roshn League.

The visitors took control from the opening minutes and threatened early. Al-Juhani rose to meet a fine cross in the fifth minute, but Al-Fateh goalkeeper Chimber brilliantly turned away his powerful header. Al-Ahli kept pressing, and Trincao drilled a low effort from the edge of the box in the 10th minute that Chimber again superbly denied.

Chimber simply would not stop rescuing his side. He kept up his impressive display by pushing a dangerous curling strike from Toney out for a corner in the 19th minute. Al-Ahli almost broke through in the 24th when Atangana's header rattled the post, before Gonçalves curled one just wide five minutes later.

The pressure finally told in the 31st minute. Gonçalves whipped in a low cross, Chimber could only parry it, and the ball dropped to Trincao, who swept it home.

Al-Fateh almost levelled on the stroke of half-time. In the second minute of stoppage time, Al-Sulaiman botched a pass back to his keeper, letting Kanga pounce and race clear, only to see his effort somehow slide past the post.

After the break, Al-Ahli carried on where they left off and doubled their lead in the 50th minute in near-identical fashion. Chimber pushed away another low cross, Trincao followed up, and the ball nestled into the net for his second of the night.

Toney delivered the coup de grâce in the 60th minute. He latched onto a well-weighted through ball, got clear of the Al-Fateh goalkeeper and dinked a lofted finish into the net.

The fourth arrived in the 89th minute. Al-Juhani fired from inside the box, the effort grazing Chimber's fingertips on its way in.

The result lifts Al-Ahli to 15 points and fifth in the table. Al-Fateh stay stuck on 3 points, second from bottom in seventeenth.