Laurent Blanc was pissed off by Al-Ittihad’s failure to “take the initiative”, although they got here from behind to earn a 2-2 draw with Al-Ahli within the Saudi Professional League.

Al-Ittihad twice trailed Al-Ahli on Saturday, with Moussa Diaby cancelling out Roger Ibanez’s opener earlier than Ivan Toney seemed to have scored the winner within the 82nd minute.

Nevertheless, Karim Benzema netted a stoppage-time equaliser, along with his strike entering into off the submit to earn the leaders a degree, which moved them 5 clear on the high of the desk.

Al-Ittihad endured a sluggish first half, accumulating simply 0.07 anticipated objectives (xG) as they didn’t register a shot on course.

They improved after the break, dominating possession and scoring with each of their efforts on course, however they didn’t create sufficient to take the sport to Al-Ahli, who had 13 photographs total.

“Till the final moments, we have been attempting to attain,” Blanc mentioned.

“I spoke with the gamers throughout half-time and requested them, are you ready for Al-Ahli to attain first? We must be those to take the initiative; we have now to take dangers to attain.

“It’s true that in earlier matches, we have been reactive, however towards Al-Hilal [a 4-1 win in February], for instance, we have been the higher facet and did take the initiative.”

Al-Ittihad have now gained simply one among their final 5 matches within the Saudi Professional League, drawing the opposite 4.

Blanc’s facet are presently with out goalkeeper Predrag Rajkovic, left-back Mario Mitaj and winger Steven Bergwijn via damage.

“I don’t like to check my crew to every other crew, however we should be practical and acknowledge that we have now many accidents affecting us,” Blanc added.