Mahamadou Doumbia scored his first Saudi Pro League goal to get Al-Ittihad back to winning ways with a 1-0 victory over Al-Najma.
Al-Ittihad – who were again without Karim Benzema amid speculation he wishes to leave the club – dominated throughout to bounce back from their last-gasp draw with Al-Fateh last time out, but remain nine points behind third place.
It took just four minutes for the hosts to break the deadlock, with Moussa Diaby, who has also been linked with a move away from Al-Ittihad, to pull the ball back to Doumbia, and he calmly slotted into the bottom-left corner.
Diaby and Houssem Aouar were then denied by Braga as Al-Ittihad continued to push for a second, without finding a way through Al-Najma.
In the second half, Diaby continued to provide a threat as he called the goalkeeper into action again just before the hour with a left-footed strike in the box.
Substitute Talal Haji should have wrapped up the game in the closing stages as he rushed in to try and meet a right-sided cross at the far post, but Braga did enough to put him off.
Al-Najma attempted a late fightback, with Predrag Rajkovic pouncing to push Ali Jasim’s curler away before Majed Dawran dragged wide of the left post on the spin in the dying seconds.
Data Debrief: Al-Ittihad ring in February in style
Al-Ittihad have not lost any of their last 18 Pro League matches played in February (W15 D3), and have ended a run of six games without a clean sheet in the month.
It took just one goal in the end, though the hosts may feel they should have had more, given they finished the match with 15 shots, albeit they were worth only 1.04 expected goals (xG).
As for Al-Najma, who created 0.41 xG, they remain without a league win this season (D5 L14), becoming just the second team to go winless across their first 19 matches, after Al-Wehda in 2012-13.
