With Karim Benzema’s maiden hat-trick, Al Hilal dominates SPL 25/26 Table
French Star Footballer Karim Benzema Thursday February 05, 2026 helped Al Hilal thrash Al Akhdoud and dominate the Saudi Pro League 25/26 Table consistently for the third week
Najran: French Star Footballer Karim Benzema Thursday February 05, 2026 helped Al Hilal thrash Al Akhdoud and dominate the Saudi Pro League 25/26 Table consistently for the third week.
In a Saudi Pro League (SPL) match played at the Prince Hathloul bin Abdulaziz Sports City Stadium in the Saudi city of Najran, Al Hilal rained down goals as Al Akhdoud footballers were unable to counter the Al Hilal fury.
Karim Benzema, who only last week joined Al Hilal saying good-bye to Al Ittihad for whom he was playing since 2023, scored a hat trick in his very first match for Al Hilal.
Karim Benzema’s sensational debut hat-trick came in style. The first goal came in the 31st minute of the match - a back-heeled finish to open the scoring, in the 60th minute - a close-range drive, and in 64th another close-range effort to complete the treble.
If that was not all, Karim Benzema assisted a goal by team-mate Malcom in the 70th minute of the match. The other highlight of Al Hilal Vs. Al Akhdood match Thursday was a brace by Salem Al-Dawsari, the AFC Player of the Year for 2025.
Al Hilal vs Al Akhdoud finished 6-0 with Karim Benzema winning the Man of the Match of the Award in his Al Hilal debut.
Interestingly, Karim Benzema had also scored a hat trick in November 2025 while playing for Al-Ittihad against Al Shabab in the Saudi King’s Cup Quarter Finals.
Saudi Pro League 2025-26 Table
With this victory, Al Hilal now leads the Saudi Pro League 2025/26 Table with 50 points.
Al Hilal FC, which was earlier lagging behind Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al Nassr in the SPL Table on the basis of Goal-Difference (GD), has also mastered its way even on this front with 35 GD as against 31 GD of Al-Nassr – thanks to the 6 goals it scored against Al Akhdoud on Thursday.
After the 20th match of the latest SPL season, Al Hilal SPL Table record shines with 15 wins, 5 draws, 0 loss, 35 GD and 50 points.
On the second position in the SPL 2025/26 Chart is Al Ahli Saudi FC (47 points) and Al-Nassr FC (46 points).
What should Al Nassr, Ronaldo do now?
Al Nassr Saudi FC was leading the SPL 2025/26 table in the initial rounds of the Saudi football league, winning all its 10 opening matches.
Al-Nassr Skipper Cristiano Ronaldo and his team mate, Joao Felix, were also the top goal scorers in the initial rounds of the ongoing SPL season. However, Al-Nassr lost its 3 next matches and somehow drew the 4th. The result was that Al Hilal replaced Al Nassr as the top Saudi Football Club in the Roshn Saudi League (RSL).
Al-Nassr regained the winning streak when it defeated Al-Riyadh three days ago. Al-Nassr vs Al-Riyadh was, however, more in news because of the absence of its captain Ronaldo or CR7 as his fans would love to call him.
It is reported that Ronaldo rested himself from Al Nassr Vs. Al Riyadh match on Feb 2, 2026 not because of injury or any other reason but in protest. It is said that the Portuguese National Football Team Skipper was upset with the Al-Nassr management for its failure to acquire Karim Benzema in the last week's winter transfer.
Benzema joined Al-Hilal on a one-and-a-half-year contract during the winter transfer window, which closed on February 2nd, after officially terminating his association with Al-Ittihad Club. Ronaldo however will be back on the ground when Al-Nassr will face Al-Ittihad today i.e. Friday February 06, 2026.
Al-Ittihad Vs Al-Nassr today is a do or die match for the latter as a victory in this match will take the Big Yellow to the second place in the Saudi Pro League Table, ahead of Al Hli Saudi FC but below Al Hilal.
On the other hand, Al Ittihad’s match against Al-Nassr today is its first without Benzema. The match today gives Al Ittihad footballers a chance to prove they can win without the French Star Footballer.
The former SPL Champion Al Ittihad is yet to impress fans as it has won 10 of the 19 matches it has played this season, and is on the 6th position in the SPL Table with 34 points.
Saudi Pro League 2025-26 started on August 28, 2025 and will continue till May 2026. Most of the football teams so far have played 16 matches. Saudi Pro League features 18 teams in a standard double round-robin format, 34 matchweeks total, each team plays 34 games.
[Zohair Mohammed Safwan Faizee is Staff Writer at ummid.com]
Follow ummid.com WhatsApp Channel for all the latest updates.
Select Language to Translate in Urdu, Hindi, Marathi or Arabic
