RSL Derby Week: The Big Takeaways

After three fevered days, it’s time to take a breath. The first Derby Week in the Roshn Saudi League truly did deliver breathtaking action across a wild 72 hours.

Scintillating football, mind-blowing atmosphere and an endless stream of talking points, the RSL’s new initiative delivered in many ways. We take a look at what we learned from a landmark weekend in the Saudi Arabian top flight.

Derby Week is a winner

The concept was exciting, the reality was even better.

When the Saudi Pro League released the fixtures for the 2024-25 season, one of the standout elements was the inclusion of Derby Week - three derbies across three days in three cities. It comprises the Sea Derby between Al Ahli and Al Ittihad, the Capital Derby between Al Hilal and Al Nassr and the Eastern Derby between Al Qadsiah and Al Ettifaq.

We knew it’d be good, but did we know it would be this good? It captured the attention of fans and media around the world, with millions of eyeballs glued to the gripping action across Jeddah, Riyadh and Dammam, while close to 90,000 fans attended the three games, with 52,546 in Jeddah, 25,490 in Riyadh and 9,124 in Dammam.

After the first installment, the countdown is already on for April when the next Derby Week will take place and, believe it or not, that one promises to be even bigger.

Tifo game on fire

It was never going to be anything but, but the tifo displays from all six teams was off the charts.

Fans in Saudi Arabia have built a reputation the world over for their incredibly detailed, intricate and colourful tifos, but Derby Week took it to a whole new level.

The King Abdullah Sports City Stadium in Jeddah was turned into an open-air art gallery, with the amazing whole stadium display that wowed fans inside the Kingdom and far beyond.

Al Nassr and Al Hilal then had their turn at Al Awwal Park, painting a mesmerising canvass of yellow and blue, before Al Qadsiah and Ettifaq rounded out the round with an epic display of their own. And while smaller in scale in the tighter Ettifaq Club Stadium, it lacked little for impact to round out Derby Week.

Al Nassr land a blow, but Al Hilal stand strong

While that elusive victory against their arch rivals continues to evade Al Nassr, they did at least end Al Hilal’s perfect start to the season, taking the first points off the defending champions this campaign.

The home side made the perfect start when Anderson Talisca opened the scoring in the first minute, giving cause for optimism among those dressed in yellow. But taking down Al Hilal is no mean feat, and the margins ever so narrowly went against Al Nassr on the night.

Talisca put the ball in the net twice more, but both were ruled out for narrow offside calls. A half-step the other way and Talisca not only has a hat-trick, but Al Nassr would’ve likely inflicted defeat on Al Hilal for the first time since December 2021.

As it was, Al Hilal dug deep and as they always do and found a way to equalise through Sergej Milinkovic-Savic in the 77th minute. But, while they may not have taken all three points, Al Nassr will walk away knowing they landed a few blows and, on another day, could’ve knocked down the heavyweight champion. It sets up an exciting re-match in April.

Pressure builds on Jaissle and Gerrard

For every winner there has to be a loser, and in Derby Week the latter were Al Ahli and Al Ettifaq – and, more specifically, their respective managers, Matthias Jaissle and Steven Gerrard.

It had already been a slow start to the season for both, each finding themselves firmly entrenched mid-table; a far cry from the top end, where they expected to be when the campaign began. Pressure was already mounting on the duo before Derby Week, but further losses to their closest rivals will have only strengthened the strain.

The 2-0 defeat for Al Ettifaq makes it now six games without a league victory since they won their first three of the season, while for Al Ahli, it’s now one win from their past four in the RSL. Already, last term’s third-placed finishers are 14 points behind top spot.

It’s well below pre-season expectations for both; the question is whether Jaissle and Gerrard will be afforded the time to turn around their fortunes?

Al Ittihad are back in the race

All eyes were on Jeddah giants Al Ittihad coming into this season after their poor title defence last season. Of the “big four” clubs, they were by far the most active in the off-season, with a host of new signings and a new manager to go along with them.

It made Al Ittihad something of an unknown at the outset, with questions regarding how quickly they could gel - if at all - under Frenchman Laurent Blanc.

The answer is very well and very quickly, and their 1-0 win against city foes Al Ahli continued Al Ittihad’s impressive start to the season. Their 2024-25 RSL record reads eight wins from nine, 22 goals scored and now only a point behind league leaders Al Hilal, who inflicted their only defeat of the season.

But while the numbers tell one story, the effort on a pitch tells another - perhaps more important one. The spirit and determination in this squad was epitomised by Abdulelah Al-Amri’s last-ditch clearance to deny Ivan Toney an equaliser.

With the former Brentford striker having rounded Predrag Rajkovic and an empty goal at his mercy, Toney looked certain to score before the Al Amri came storming in to clear the goal-bound effort for a corner.

His celebration, as if he scored a goal and not simply denied one, spoke volumes. The behind-the-goal camera showed how hard Al Amri worked to get into that position, and that as much as anything shows that Al Ittihad are a force to be reckoned with this year.

For more Derby Week content visit our dedicated hub, with star interviews, features, videos and more HERE