Firmino lauds Mendy, declares Al Ahli 'fighting for everything'

It's a rare day that a team wins 5-0 yet the most talked about moment of the match is something their goalkeeper did.

Rarer, still, that the talking point is not an incredible save nor, goalkeepers being goalkeepers, something unorthodox and more than a little ill-advised.

But that was very much the case in Al Ahli’s five-goal triumph against Al Riyadh at King Abdullah Sports City on Sunday night. The most dazzling moment from the match was Edouard Mendy’s superb 75-yard pass for Al Ahli's final blow of the clash in Jeddah: Riyad Mahrez’s goal in the 88th minute.

It was so good, in fact, it would have been a fine addition to the Algerian winger’s already-heaving highlights reel.

Falling to his knees after claiming a catch, Mendy spotted a potential attack while on the ground and sprung to his feet to kick the ball towards the sprinting Mahrez on the right wing. After watching the pass soaring through the air, the Al Ahli No.7 took the most adroit of touches with his right foot as the ball came to earth.

Taking him inside his opponent, the former Manchester City star then unleashed a first-time rocket with his left foot that thudded into the roof of Milan Borjan’s net. Al Ahli's victory, a seventh in their past Roshn Saudi League outings, was complete.

What happened as soon as the goal went in told its own story. Half the Al Ahli team went to celebrate with the goalscorer – but the other half turned around and raced back to congratulate their goalkeeper.

“It was an amazing pass, congratulations to him,” a thrilled Roberto Firmino, the Al Ahli captain, said afterwards. “For a goalkeeper to [be able to] do that… amazing. Congratulations.”

Firmino was also on the scoresheet, tapping home the third from Franck Kessie’s pass for his five RSL goal of the season, and ninth in all competitions. The Brazilian’s strike was supplemented by a double from Ivan Toney, the Englishman taking his league tally to six goals from 14 appearances.

“it’d have been better if it was a hat-trick”, quipped Toney afterwards, who also had a goal chalked off for offside.

In a convincing Al Ahli win - midfielder Ziyad Al Johani’s looping header had made it 2-0 on the hour - Kessie and Firmino also had goals ruled out by VAR, the former after a foul in the build-up by the latter, and Firmino because of another offside call.

One of the form teams in the 2024-25 RSL, the result leaves Al Ahli in fifth, three points off fourth-placed Al Nassr and five behind Al Qadisiah in third.

“It was a big three points,” former Liverpool forward Firmino said. “I’m very happy to score again and help the team. We fight for everything, and we’ll do our best to achieve our goals in the future. We just need to keep winning games.

“I love it here; I’m happy. Scoring goals helps the team and that’s my goal every game, so we’re getting better day by day.”

Al Riyadh slipped to eighth in the table, with coach Sabri Lamouchi readily admitting that Matthias Jaissle’s team were “excellent”.

“I want to congratulate Al Ahli for the win,” Lamouchi sportingly commented. “Luck was not on our side. I don’t think it mattered if we had played with four or five defenders. We might have lost because we did a few changes in the defensive line, but we played against a big team, an organized team, and an excellent team.”