Al Shabab thrash Al Taawon with three goals despite playing with ten men

Al Shabab secured a deserved win over visitors Al Taawon by a score of 3-0 in the match between the two sides in matchday 8 of the Saudi Pro League, held on 11 October 2026 at 21:00 Damascus time.

A. Matuq opened the scoring for Al Shabab in the 18th minute, before the team suffered a setback with the sending off of Ali Al Bulayhi in the 33rd minute, leaving Al Shabab to play with ten men for the remainder of the match. Nevertheless, Ricardo Mathias doubled the lead in first-half stoppage time in the 45+6th minute, before Yannick Ferreira Carrasco scored Al Shabab's third goal in the 85th minute to settle the result of the match.

Despite the win, Al Taawon dominated possession with 68 per cent against 32 per cent for Al Shabab, and recorded 473 passes compared to 228 for their opponents. Al Taawon also won 4 corner kicks against just one for Al Shabab, and had 15 shots compared to 13 for Al Shabab.

In terms of shots on target, Al Shabab were more effective, recording 6 shots on target compared to just 3 for Al Taawon, while the expected goals (xG) rate stood at 2.22 for Al Shabab against 0.82 for Al Taawon. Al Taawon received 5 yellow cards compared to two for Al Shabab, in addition to the red card received by Al Shabab.

The match was officiated by referee Khaled Al Ahmari, and was broadcast on Thmanyah channel.

With this result, Al Shabab raised their tally to 4 points to occupy 14th place in the standings, having scored 6 goals and conceded 11, with no previous win, 4 draws and 3 losses. In contrast, Al Taawon's tally remained frozen at 3 points in 16th place, having scored 3 goals and conceded 12, with no wins, 3 draws and 4 losses.