Shabab qualified for the Crown Prince Cup final after a 3-1 victory over Al-Hazm in their semifinal match in Al-Rass on Sunday. The Riyadh-based club Al-Shabab barely had to move to go into the lead minutes after the kickoff when Al-Hazm's Bashar Bin Yaseen scored an own goal. Waleed Al-Jizani equalized for the home side after the break but goals from Nasser Al-Shamrani and Hassan Moaz sealed the win for Al-Shabab. Al-Hazm, which reached the semifinals following a 1-0 win over Al-Ittifaq, started the match depending on counter-attack in a bid to surprise the advancing Al-Shabab players. On Sunday, however, Al-Shabab shot into the lead after seven minutes of resistance by Al-Hazm when Abdo Atif's free kick deflected off host Bashar Bin Yaseen and landed into his own goal. The early goal gave Al-Shabab an upper hand to press forward looking to double the lead and secure the win. Kuwaiti striker Ahmed Ajab almost doubled the lead midway through the first half but his short-range shot went wide. Ajab is the man who led Al-Shabab into the semifinal after scoring the lone goal against the First Division side Al-Fatah last week. After the break, Al-Hazm began to reorganize its lines and dominated the game as Al-Shabab's performance took a dive. In the 55th minute, Waleed Al-Jizani took advantage of an error by Qatari Talal Al-Boloshi when the Al-Shabab defender pulled Al-Jizani down inside the box. Al-Jizani made it 1-1 when he converted the resulting penalty to the right of Waleed Abdullah. The equalizer revived Al-Hazm's hopes but its efforts were killed five minutes later when Nasser Al-Shamrani helped Al-Shabab regain lead when he scored from the spot. Al-Hazm was reduced to 10 players after Thiab Majrashi collected his second yellow card for his dangerous tackle against Al-Shabab midfielder Marcello Camatcho. In the 60th minute, Al-Shabab's Hassan Moaz put the result beyond any doubt when he blasted a free kick from 20 yards into the right side of Saeed Al-Harbi. On Monday, Riyadh giant Al-Hilal faces city rival Al-Nasr in the other semifinal to be played in the capital city. __
