Cristiano Ronaldo did his best to carry Al Nassr in the Riyadh derby, but in the end, he had little help from either his teammates or the officials as Al Hilal stormed to a 3-0 victory at King Fahd International Stadium on Friday.
2023/2024 Saudi Professional League
3-0
Match Events
0' The match is about to start!
3' CLOSE! Brozović’s shot wide out
11' Talisca misses a golden chance!
27' Mane’s shot wide out
40' Yahya replace Telles
40' Yellow Card! Otávio booked
64' GOAL! Al-Hilal Saudi FC 1-0 Al Nassr FC (Milinkovic-Savic)
72' OFFSIDE! Ronaldo’s goal disallowed
86' Ronaldo goes down in the box
90' GOAL! Al-Hilal Saudi FC 2-0 Al Nassr FC (Mitrovic)
92' GOAL! Al-Hilal Saudi FC 3-0 Al Nassr FC (Mitrovic)
93' Red Card! Ali Albulayhi sent off
Match Report
Ronaldo had a goal ruled out for the slimmest of offside and saw a clear penalty not given, and Al Nassr had little else in front of goal.
On the other side, Al Hilal produced a host of glorious chances, all which went begging until Sergej Milinkovic-Savic’s powerful header put them in front past the hour mark. That sent Al Hilal into a lead they would not relinquish, as Aleksandar Mitrovic picked up a pair of late goals in stoppage time and nearly had a delightful third, just missing an acrobatic overhead kick.
It was not without controversy, however, and could have ended very different had a pair of decisions not gone against Al Nassr. Ronaldo first saw a goal disallowed for offside in the 73rd minute, which was confirmed by semi-automated offside technology as just the tip of his knee was over the line, a marginal but correct decision.
Then, with the game still sitting at 1-0 in the 86th minute, Ronaldo was pulverised by Yassine Bounou as the Al Hilal goalkeeper went for a punch but missed, yet no penalty was given. While the offside decision was technically correct, the Al Nassr players and coaching staff will definitely have questions about this no-call which would have, at the time, given them a chance to level the match.
Ultimately, Al Hilal vaulted well clear at the top of the table, while Mitrovic's double pulled him closer to Ronaldo in the Saudi Pro League top goal scorer race.
Line-ups
Al-Hilal Saudi FC XI: Koulibaly, Bounou, Salem Al Dawsari, Mitrovic, Neves, Milinkovic-Savic, Mohammed Al Burayk, Malcom, Ali Albulayhi, Michael, Saud Abdulhamid
Subs: Salman Al Faraj, Mohammed Jahfali, Saleh Al-Shehri, Mohammed Kanoo, Habib Al-Wutaian, Abdulelah Al-Malki, Abdullah Al-Hamdan, Khalifah Al-Dawsari, Musab Al-Juwayr
Al Nassr FC XI: Ronaldo, Alex Telles, Brozovic, Laporte, Mane, S.Fofana, Otávio, Talisca, Sultan Al-Ghannam, Ali Lajami, Nawaf Al-Aqidi
Subs: Mohammed Al-Fatil, Abdullah Madu, Abdulmajeed Al-Sulayhim, Sami Al-Najei, Abdullah Alkhaibari, Raghed Al-Najjar, Abdulrahman Ghareeb, Ayman Yahya, Mohammed Maran