Al-Riyadh 0-1 Al-Nassr: Mane volley sends visitors top in Ronaldo absence

Sadio Mane sent Al-Nassr back to the top of the Saudi Pro League as they defeated Al-Riyadh 1-0 at Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium.

The headlines before the game were dominated by Cristiano Ronaldo, who reportedly refused to feature for Al-Nassr due to his frustrations with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and their failure to invest in the team's squad. 

Mane, however, ensured that Jorge Jesus' side extended their winning run in the league to five games with a brilliant volley in the 40th minute, moving them above Al-Hilal in the standings, though they face Al-Ahli later on Monday.

Al-Riyadh fired off an early warning when Sergio Gonzalez struck the woodwork in the sixth minute, while Joao Felix failed to get any power behind his efforts when testing Milan Borjan before the half-hour mark.

Sultan Haroun thought he had given the hosts the lead, but was penalised for offside. And to add misery to their disallowed goal, Al-Nassr went straight up the other end and scored, with Joao Felix scooping the ball over the top of the defence for Mane to volley home.

Al-Nassr almost doubled their lead from Joao Felix's inswinging corner in the 80th minute, but Sultan Al-Ghannam's header hit the inside of the far post and was cleared, after Mane slipped while shooting from the rebound.

The visitors then thought they were going to be awarded a penalty in stoppage-time when Mane was downed by Mohammed Al-Khaibari in the box, but when referee Khalid Saleh Al-Turais went to check the incident on the VAR monitor, he stuck with his original decision.

Data Debrief: Joao Felix back to his best

Despite a narrow scoreline, Jorge Jesus' side were fairly comfortable away from home. They produced 1.41 expected goals (xG) from 13 shots to Al-Riyadh's 0.57 from five attempts, none of which were on target.

And in Ronaldo's absence, Joao Felix stepped up. Along with his assist, the former Chelsea player recorded the most shots in the match (four), created the joint third-most chances (two) and competed in the most duels (15), winning seven of them.

Only Ivan Toney (22) has directly contributed to more goals in the Saudi Pro League than Joao Felix this season (20 - 13 goals, seven assists).

The last league campaign in which the Portuguese forward recorded 20+ goal involvements came in 2018‑19, when he contributed 22 for Benfica in the Primeira Liga (15 goals, seven assists).