Cristiano Ronaldo’s latest bid for silverware at Al Nassr ended in tatters, with Al Hilal claiming a deserved 2-1 win in the Saudi Super Cup semi-finals.
The two teams who currently top the table in the Saudi Pro League went head-to-head in the cup tournament, hoping to book their place in the final of the competition. Ronaldo thought he had opened the scoring in the first half for his team, but the goal was chalked off for offside.
In the second half, though, it was Al Hilal who took the lead, thanks to an effort just after the hour mark from Salem Al Dawsari. Malcolm then doubled up for the league leaders 11 minutes later, putting Al Nassr on the precipice of elimination from the cup competition.
However, any chance of Ronaldo’s team mounting a comeback in the game then evaporated with just four minutes of normal time remaining. Their Portuguese talisman chased down a ball which went out of play, and rushed over to retrieve it to put his team on the front foot.
Blocked off by an Al Hilal player, the 39-year-old lost his temper, and footage shows him knocking the player to the turf. Players from both teams then rushed over, and a skirmish ensued.
Faced with little choice, the referee showed a straight red card to Ronaldo for violent conduct, despite protestations from the Portuguese international and Al Nassr players. Ronaldo was then seen sarcastically clapping as he left the pitch, clearly unhappy about his dismissal.
There was still time for former Liverpool winger Sadio Mane to score in the 99th minute and give his team a glimmer of hope, but the goal came too late, and Al Nassr crashed out of the Super Cup.
Last night’s semi-final was an opportunity for Ronaldo and Al Nassr to earn a shot at silverware against 2022-23 Saudi Pro League champions Al Ittihad, but they could not find a way past the stubborn Al Hilal defence and goalkeeper Bono in normal time. That is despite having more total shots and shots on target than their opponents.
Ronaldo, having scored two incredible free-kicks in 10 minutes during their match against Abha en route to a hat-trick on April 2, struggled to make much of an impact on the game. The veteran registered just two shots on target, and his miserable night was compounded by the late red card.
It was an uncharacteristic night in front of goal for him. Ronaldo leads the scoring charts in the league by seven goals, finding the back of the net 29 times so far this season. His attention will now be on the league, as Al Nassr seek to close the 12 point gap between themselves and leaders Al Hilal. They face Al Feiha in their next game on April 19.
&uuid=(email))