The now hyped Saudi Championship has begun! For the first round, Al-Nassr, Cristiano Ronaldo’s team, suffered an upset playing away from home against Al-Ettifaq, a team that has former English player Steven Gerrard as coach.
Cristiano Ronaldo scored two goals last Saturday, in the victory of Al-Nassr over Al-Hilal that guaranteed the team the title of the Arab Champions Cup. Therefore, coach Luis Castro, formerly of Botafogo, chose to spare CR7, who was not even on the bench this Monday.
Now, Al Nassr leaves the defeat behind and prepares to, this Friday, face Al-Taawon, for the second round of the Saudi Championship. The ball will roll at 3 pm (Brasília time).
The game
Despite the defeat, Al-Nassr started the match well and it didn’t take long to open the scoring with Sadio Mané, another star of European football who is now playing in the Saudi league.
Just after 3 minutes, the ex-Liverpool number 10 received a low cross inside the penalty area and just pushed for the goal by Paulo Victor, ex-Flamengo and Grêmio.
Al-Ettifaq only reached the tie after 1 minute of the ball rolling in the second half. After a corner from the right, goalkeeper Nawaf Alaqidi managed to grab the ball, but, in a terrible mistake, let it slip and Qualon took the opportunity to score and leave everything the same.
The turning point goal came from the feet of another well-known Brazilian fan. At 8, Vitinho, ex-Flamengo, crossed on the left side and Dembele completed the net to enshrine the victory of the home team.
Source: Gazetaesportiva
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