After more than 1 year of being out injured (specifically 369 days), Neymar finally returned to football. The Brazilian striker was benched by Al Hilal when the club traveled to Al Ain’s field.

In the 77th minute, Neymar was put on the field. At that time, Al Hilal was leading Al Ain with a score of 5-3. It seemed that the star born in 1992 would have many opportunities to show himself, but he did not.

In the 82nd minute, Al Bulayhi received a red card, forcing Al Hilal to play with 10 men. The representative of the Saudi League had to focus on defense to preserve 3 points, so Neymar did not leave much of an impression in the few dozen minutes he was on the field.

The best chance came to Neymar in the 87th minute. Al Hilal had a lightning-fast counter-attack, Neymar was given the chance and this striker had a dangerous cross-angle shot with his left foot. But the Al Ain goalkeeper still made an excellent save.

The drama increased when Rahimi scored in the 90+6 minute from the penalty spot, reducing the gap to 4-5 for Al Ain. Because the second half had 12 minutes of extra time, Al Hilal had to work very hard to defend, from then on not conceding another goal.

In the end, Neymar’s team won with a score of 5-4. That result helped Al Hilal maintain the top spot in Group B of the AFC Champions League with 9 absolute points after 3 matches.

The brightest stars of the match were Rahimi (Al Ain) and Al Dawsari (Al Hilal). These 2 players both had hat-tricks of goals.

As for Neymar, he has only played 6 matches for Al Hilal since joining the team in August 2023. Although he has not contributed much, the Brazilian player still receives a huge income, up to 130 million pounds/year at Al Hilal.