Rahimi netted again before Al Dawsari completed his hat-trick with a spectacular strike 15 minutes from time while Ali Al Bulayhi’s 82nd minute red card left Al Hilal, who introduced Neymar Junior as a late substitute, short-handed for the closing exchanges.

Rahimi completed his hat trick from the penalty spot six minutes into injury time but the reigning champions fell just short of completing a remarkable come-back in an incident-filled encounter.

The result, which saw Al Hilal avenge last season’s semi-final loss to Al Ain, keeps the Saudis on top of the league phase with nine points from their opening games while Hernan Crespo’s outfit remain on a solitary point having lost two of the first three games.

It was Al Hilal who took the lead after Aleksandar Mitrovic slid his pass to the left to where full back Renan Lodi was galloping forward, and the Brazilian hit a low shot into the bottom corner of Eisa’s goal.

Al Ain bounced back six minutes before the interval when Rahimi struck from close range.

The Al Hilal defence was unable to clear Mathias Palacios’s corner and the ball fell at the feet of Park, who released Erik Jorgenson on his left and the midfielder’s inviting centre across the six-yard box was poked home by last year’s AFC Champions League top scorer.

Al Ain’s efforts were undone two minutes into first half injury time when Milinkovic-Savic punished the home defence as it dozed off, the former Lazio midfielder emerging unmarked to head Joao Cancelo’s cross from the right past Eisa.

Four minutes later the visitors extended their lead after Al Dawsari was released behind the defence and, with Eisa having raced out to close down the Al Hilal captain, the Saudi international slotted home from a tight angle with an inch-perfect finish.

Sanabria latched onto Kodjo Laba’s through ball to halve the deficit in the 63rd minute but Al Dawsari’s second looped over Eisa and into the net after Milinkovic-Savic’s pass from the right.

Rahimi cut in from the left to hit Al Ain’s third in the 67th minute before Al Dawsari struck again with 15 minutes remaining, this time beating Eisa with a thunderbolt of a right-foot strike from outside the area.

Al Bulahyi was dismissed for an intentional handball with eight minutes remaining and Rahimi completed his hat trick from the penalty spot deep into injury time after he was brought down by Khalifa Al Dawsari and Al Hilal held on to take the win.