# 2014–15 Al-Hilal FC season

The 2014–15 season was the Al-Hilal Saudi Football Club's 58th in existence and 39th consecutive season in the top flight of Saudi Arabian football. Along with Pro League, the club participated in the AFC Champions League, Crown Prince Cup, and the King Cup.

## Players
### Squad information

Players and squad numbers. Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
| No. | Position | Name | Date Of Birth (Age) | Moving from |
| Goalkeepers ||||||
| 1 | GK | Khalid Sharhili | (1987-02-03)3 February 1987 (aged 28) | Youth system |
| 22 | GK | Fahad Al-Thunayan | (1986-08-26)26 August 1986 (aged 28) | Al-Taawon |
| 28 | GK | Abdullah Al-Sudairy | (1992-02-02)2 February 1992 (aged 23) | Youth system |
| 32 | GK | Fayz Al-Sabiay | (1982-10-09)9 October 1982 (aged 32) | Al-Ettifaq |
| Defenders ||||||
| 2 | RB | Sultan Al-Bishi | (1990-01-28)28 January 1990 (aged 25) | Youth system |
| 3 | CB | Yahya Al-Musalem | (1987-01-07)7 January 1987 (aged 28) | Al-Raed |
| 4 | LB / CB | Abdullah Al-Zori | (1987-08-13)13 August 1987 (aged 27) | Al-Nahda |
| 12 | LB / RB | Yasser Al-Shahrani | (1992-05-22)22 May 1992 (aged 23) | Al-Qadisiyah |
| 17 | CB | Abdullah Al-Hafith | (1992-12-25)25 December 1992 (aged 22) | Al-Ettifaq |
| 23 | CB | Kwak Tae-Hwi | (1981-07-08)8 July 1981 (aged 33) | Al-Shabab |
| 26 | CB | Digão | (1988-05-07)7 May 1988 (aged 27) | Fluminense |
| 33 | CB | Sultan Al-Deayea | (1993-03-08)8 March 1993 (aged 22) | Youth system |
| 35 | CB | Ahmed Sharahili | (1994-08-05)5 August 1994 (aged 20) | Youth system |
| 49 | LB | Abdullah Al-Shamekh | (1993-05-28)28 May 1993 (aged 22) | Youth system |
| 70 | CB / RB | Mohammed Jahfali | (1990-10-24)24 October 1990 (aged 24) | Al-Faisaly |
| Midfielders ||||||
| 6 | DM / CM | Mohammed Al-Qarni | (1989-11-24)24 November 1989 (aged 25) | Youth system |
| 7 | CM / AM | Thiago Neves | (1985-02-27)27 February 1985 (aged 30) | Fluminense |
| 9 | RM | Hamed Al-Hamed | (1987-08-26)26 August 1987 (aged 27) | Al-Ettifaq |
| 10 | AM / LW | Mohammad Al-Shalhoub | (1980-12-08)8 December 1980 (aged 34) | Youth system |
| 11 | AM / LM | Abdullaziz Al-Dawsari | (1988-10-11)11 October 1988 (aged 26) | Youth system |
| 13 | AM / LM / LW | Salman Al-Faraj (C) | (1989-01-08)8 January 1989 (aged 26) | Youth system |
| 14 | CM | Saud Kariri | (1980-06-08)8 June 1980 (aged 35) | Al-Ittihad |
| 18 | DM | Abdullah Otayf | (1992-08-03)3 August 1992 (aged 22) | Al-Shabab |
| 24 | LM / RM | Nawaf Al-Abed | (1990-01-26)26 January 1990 (aged 25) | Youth system |
| 25 | CM | Faisel Darwish | (1991-07-03)3 July 1991 (aged 23) | Al-Raed |
| 29 | RM | Salem Al-Dawsari | (1991-08-19)19 August 1991 (aged 23) | Youth system |
| 36 | CM | Abdullah Al-Ammar | (1994-03-01)1 March 1994 (aged 21) | Youth system |
| 39 | CM | Abdulellah Al-Fadhl | (1992-03-27)27 March 1992 (aged 23) | Youth system |
| Forwards ||||||
| 15 | ST / CF | Nasser Al-Shamrani | (1983-11-23)23 November 1983 (aged 31) | Al-Shabab |
| 16 | ST / CF | Yousef Al-Salem | (1985-05-04)4 May 1985 (aged 30) | Al-Ettifaq |
| 19 | RW | Khalid Ka'abi | (1992-05-24)24 May 1992 (aged 23) | Youth system |
| 20 | ST / CF | Yasser Al-Qahtani (C) | (1982-10-11)11 October 1982 (aged 32) | Al-Qadisiyah |
| 77 | ST / RW | Georgios Samaras | (1985-02-21)21 February 1985 (aged 30) | West Bromwich Albion |

## Competitions
### Overall

| Competition | Started round | Final position / round | First match | Last match |
| Pro League | — | 3rd | 8 August 2014 | 15 May 2015 |
| 2014 ACL | Quarter-final | Runners-up | 19 August 2014 | 1 November 2014 |
| Crown Prince Cup | Round of 16 | Runners-up | 23 December 2014 | 13 February 2015 |
| 2015 ACL | Group stage | Round of 16 | 25 February 2015 | 26 May 2015 |
| King Cup | Round of 32 | Winners | 10 March 2015 | 5 June 2015 |

#### Notes

* Note 1: Al-Hilal qualified to the Quarter-finals.

### Overview

| Competition | Record | Record | Record | Record | Record | Record | Record | Record |
| Competition | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Win % |
| Pro League | 26 | 16 | 6 | 4 | 46 | 17 | +29 | 061.54 |
| King Cup | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 18 | 5 | +13 | 080.00 |
| Crown Prince Cup | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 4 | +6 | 075.00 |
| 2014 ACL | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 3 | +2 | 033.33 |
| 2015 ACL | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 12 | 5 | +7 | 062.50 |
| Total | 49 | 30 | 10 | 9 | 91 | 34 | +57 | 061.22 |
Source: Competitions

### Pro League
#### League table

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| 1 | Al-Nassr (C) | 26 | 20 | 4 | 2 | 62 | 20 | +42 | 64 | Qualification for the AFC Champions League group stage |
| 2 | Al-Ahli | 26 | 17 | 9 | 0 | 59 | 22 | +37 | 60 | Qualification for the AFC Champions League group stage |
| 3 | Al-Hilal | 26 | 16 | 6 | 4 | 46 | 17 | +29 | 54 | Qualification for the AFC Champions League group stage |
| 4 | Al-Ittihad | 26 | 16 | 4 | 6 | 44 | 33 | +11 | 52 | Qualification for the AFC Champions League play-off round |
| 5 | Al-Shabab | 26 | 11 | 7 | 8 | 37 | 31 | +6 | 40 | |
* ↑ As winners of the 2015 King Cup, Al-Hilal, qualified for AFC Champions League group stage thus the spot for the third-placed team (AFC Champions League play-off round) is passed down to the fourth-placed team.

#### Results summary

| Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Home | Home | Home | Home | Home | Home | Away | Away | Away | Away | Away | Away |
Source: Competitive matches

#### Results by round

| Round | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| Ground | A | H | H | H | H | A | H | H | A | A | H | A | A | H | A | A | A | A | H | A | A | H | H | A | H | H |
| Result | W | W | D | W | W | W | L | W | D | D | W | L | D | W | L | D | W | W | W | W | W | W | W | D | L | W |
| Position | 3 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |

#### Matches
### Crown Prince Cup

Al-Hilal started the Crown Prince Cup directly in the round of 16, as one of last year's finalists.

### 2015 AFC Champions League
#### Group stage

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification | HIL | SAD | FOO | LOK |
| 1 | Al-Hilal | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 4 | +5 | 13 | Advance to knockout stage | — | 2–1 | 2–0 | 3–1 |
| 2 | Al-Sadd | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 9 | 0 | 10 | Advance to knockout stage | 1–0 | — | 1–0 | 6–2 |
| 3 | Foolad | 6 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 | −2 | 6 | | 0–0 | 0–0 | — | 1–0 |
| 4 | Lokomotiv Tashkent | 6 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 10 | 13 | −3 | 4 | | 1–2 | 5–0 | 1–1 | — |

#### Knockout stage
##### Round of 16
## Statistics
### Goalscorers

| Rank | No. | Pos | Nat | Name | Pro League | King Cup | Crown Prince Cup | 2014 ACL | 2015 ACL | Total |
| 1 | 15 | FW | | Nasser Al-Shamrani | 13 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 24 |
| 2 | 7 | MF | | Thiago Neves | 10 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 20 |
| 3 | 13 | MF | | Salman Al-Faraj | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 6 |
| 4 | 16 | FW | | Yousef Al-Salem | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 |
| 5 | 29 | MF | | Salem Al-Dawsari | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| 5 | 24 | MF | | Nawaf Al-Abed | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| 5 | 26 | DF | | Digão | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| 8 | 20 | FW | | Yasser Al-Qahtani | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 9 | 10 | MF | | Mohammad Al-Shalhoub | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 9 | 14 | MF | | Saud Kariri | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 9 | 4 | DF | | Abdullah Al-Zori | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 9 | 12 | DF | | Yasser Al-Shahrani | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 9 | 23 | DF | | Kwak Tae-hwi | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 9 | 77 | FW | | Georgios Samaras | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 15 | 25 | MF | | Faisel Darwish | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 15 | 19 | MF | | Khalid Ka'abi | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 15 | 70 | DF | | Mohammed Jahfali | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 15 | 11 | MF | | Abdullaziz Al-Dawsari | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Total | Total | Total | Total | Total | 43 | 18 | 9 | 5 | 11 | 86 |

### Assists

| Rank | No. | Pos | Nat | Name | League | Crown Prince Cup | King Cup | 2014 CL | 2015 CL | Total |
| 1 | 7 | MF | | Thiago Neves | 2 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 9 |
| 2 | 13 | MF | | Salman Al-Faraj | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 8 |
| 2 | 29 | MF | | Salem Al-Dawsari | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 8 |
| 3 | 15 | FW | | Nasser Al-Shamrani | 4 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 7 |
| 4 | 25 | MF | | Faisel Darwish | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| 4 | 4 | DF | | Abdullah Al-Zori | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| 4 | 10 | MF | | Mohammad Al-Shalhoub | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| 5 | 8 | MF | | Mehai Pintili | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| 6 | 24 | MF | | Nawaf Al-Abed | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| 7 | 12 | DF | | Yasser Al-Shahrani | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 7 | 16 | FW | | Yousef Al-Salem | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 7 | 77 | FW | | Georgios Samaras | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 8 | 11 | MF | | Abdulazez Al Dosari | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 8 | 14 | MF | | Saud Karriri | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Total | Total | Total | Total | Total | 34 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 4 | 63 |