Al Hilal Omdurman were left frustrated, after being held to a 0-0 draw by a stubborn CR Belouizdad in a African Champions League Group B clash played in Khartoum, Sudan on Tuesday.
The encounter got off to a slow start, although Al Hilal started asserting their dominance after 10 minutes.
Mohamed Yousif almost opened the scoring in the eighth minute, but his sliding effort from six-yards out was saved by Toufik Moussaoui.
That chance proved to be the only bit of goal-mouth action in the opening 20 minutes, as both never looked like giving anything up, rather than go out and attack.
That set the tone for the rest of the half, as the final 25 minutes saw both sides commit numerous amount of fouls, while Nizar Hamid was on the receiving end of most of those hard challenges.
Al Hilal’ best chance of the half arrived just before the halftime break, as Eid Mugadam ‘s header was saved by Moussaoui.
The first meaningful chance of the second half arrived in the 69th minute, as Marcelli Koukpo’s header crashed onto the crossbar, after getting on the end of Hamza Belahouel’s cross.
Zakaria Draoui had a chance to break the deadlock in the 76th minute but his glancing header sailed just wide of the upright.
Faris Abdalla almost gave Sundowns the lead in the 82nd minute, the Sudan international got beyond his defender before firing a low effort at Moussaoui, who managed to palm the effort away.
Moussaoui was called into action minutes later once again, this time parrying Vinny Kombe’s powerful effort out for a corner.
Al Hilal finished the game the stronger of the two, but could not find the all important winning goal.
