Al Hilal carried their FIFA Club World Cup momentum straight into the new Roshn Saudi League season with a commanding 2-0 win over Al Riyadh at Kingdom Arena.

Full-back Moteb Al Harbi opened the scoring in style, driving home from the edge of the area after a surging run.

Brazilian forward Malcom doubled the advantage on the stroke of halftime with a clinical finish.

Debutant Darwin Núñez thought he had scored inside 10 minutes only for VAR to intervene, while Malcom, João Cancelo and Abdullah Al Hamdan all came close to adding to the tally in the second half.

At the other end, Yassine Bono produced two key saves from Toze to ensure a clean sheet in Simone Inzaghi’s first RSL match in charge.

For Al Hilal, the performance reinforced their title credentials.