Al-Nassr left behind the painful defeat against Míchel’s Al-Qadisiyah in the Saudi Pro League, went into ‘Champions mode’ and gave Sergio Rico and Joselu’s Al-Gharafa no option (1-3). The Spanish striker made up the score with 15′ left. Before, Cristiano Ronaldo continued to close the gap towards the 1,000th goal of his career with a double in the second half. There are only 86 left. Nothing for a guy who, just today, has reached 450 targets after the age of 30.
Cristiano, who had just scored in the league, starred in the first dangerous chances for Al-Nassr who found themselves with a penalty on Mané before reaching the half hour mark. But, when he was already concentrating to take the maximum penalty, the referee corrected his decision in what he understood as a ‘piscinazo’ by the Senegalese.
It did nothing more than motivate a Cristiano who, after several failed attempts before the break, began to unbalance the balance with a ‘headbutt’ as soon as he passed through the locker room. That was the end of Al-Gharafa’s resistance, which made it 2-0 in the 56th minute after an extraordinary play by Angelo Gabriel in which he left Sergio Rico ‘sitting’.
The young Brazilian winger, a Santos youth squad and transferred to Al-Nassr from Chelsea last summer, was with his ‘little arrow up’ and culminated his great performance by assisting Cristiano in the 64th minute to leave the match completely sealed. The Portuguese received at the top of the area, left his pair on the ground with a cut… and made it impossible for the long post defended by Sergio Rico.
With everything seen for sentencing, Al-Nassr took his foot off the accelerator, let Al-Gharafa grow and Joselu took advantage of a rebound that Bento left dead to close the gap in the 75th minute. It was too late. But, in case there was any hope, Sano took it upon himself to throw them to the ground seeing the red card with five minutes remaining.
Key victory for Al-Nassr, who is still undefeated in the Champions League after five games… and delicate defeat for Al-Gharafa that could end the day outside the playoff positions in the West.