After three seasons, Cristiano Ronaldo will have to wait a little longer to win the Saudi league title for the first time.
He who waits, always gets what he wants. But Cristiano Ronaldo will have to wait at least another two weeks. After almost three and a half years at Al Nassr, the Portuguese forward saw the title slip away in an unbelievable way, in a derby against Al Hilal (1-1) .
In the final play of the game, goalkeeper Bento (who had a great performance) tried to catch a throw-in and collided with his teammate Inigo Martinez. The ball capriciously went into the goal, resulting in the late equalizer. This happened in the 90+8th minute.
At Al Nassr’s home ground in Riyadh, JJ’s team knew that a victory would be enough to succeed Al Ittihad as Saudi champions. But the first dangerous plays came from the visitors, usually with Karim Benzema as the common denominator = he even had a goal disallowed in the 18th minute.
However, the first goal was indeed scored by Al Nassr. Mohamed Simakan was the unlikely scorer, volleying the ball into the net from a corner kick during an attacking move.
Cristiano Ronaldo had some dangerous shots that were denied by the Moroccan goalkeeper Bounou. He was substituted in the 82nd minute, while Joao Felix played the full 90 minutes, as did Ruben Neves for Al Hilal.
There is only one game left in the championship, away to Damac on the 21st, after the Asian Champions League 2 final against the Japanese team Gamba Osaka. A draw is enough to win the title, if Al Hilal wins their postponed game: next Saturday, at home, against NEOM.
If Al Hilal doesn’t beat NEOM, however, then Al Nassr will be champions and celebrate from their sofas, without even having to play (the game isn’t until Wednesday of next week, the 20th).
Jorge Jesus could bring back a title that has eluded Al Nassr since 2019, when Rui Vitoria was at the helm. For now, Cristiano Ronaldo couldn’t believe what he saw.
