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Cristiano Ronaldo came off the bench to score in a 25th consecutive season as Al Nassr beat Al Riyadh 4-0 to go top of the Saudi Pro League. Abdulelah Al-Amri opened the scoring, with Angelo Gabriel and Joao Felix adding to it before Ronaldo finished the job. Al Nassr and Al Hilal are level on six points, separated by goal difference.
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: He had watched the opening weekend from a box, short of match fitness after arriving late from the World Cup and his wedding. On Friday, Cristiano Ronaldo got back on the pitch, and it took him 21 minutes of it to score.
Introduced in the 62nd minute, he found the net in the 83rd — a low diagonal strike with his left foot from the centre of the area, converting Ayman Yahya’s cross past Milan Borjan. It was his first goal of the campaign and it extended a scoring run that now stretches across 25 consecutive seasons, a span covering five countries and every club of his senior career.
It was also his 103rd goal in the Saudi Pro League, drawing him level with Mohammed Al-Sahlawi as the competition’s leading scorer in the professional era.
Settled Before the Break
Al Nassr had done the substantive work well before he arrived. Abdulelah Al-Amri opened the scoring in the 18th minute, and Angelo Gabriel doubled the lead in first-half stoppage time — the Brazilian’s second goal in as many league matches after he also struck against Al Fateh.
ALSO READ: Al Nassr open title defence without Ronaldo as Dembele hits season’s first hat-trick
Joao Felix, who scored in that opener too, made it three in the 58th. By the hour mark Al Riyadh were chasing a game that had stopped being competitive.
The Numbers Match the Scoreline
This was as one-sided as 4-0 suggests. Al Nassr held 57 per cent possession and generated 1.62 expected goals to Al Riyadh’s 0.42. They had 17 shots to 11, but five on target to one, and the gap widened in the areas that matter — 32 touches in the opposition box against seven, nine corners to three, and five big chances created to none at all.
For Al Riyadh it is a second heavy league defeat in two matches, following a 4-2 loss to Al Ettifaq on the opening weekend. A 2-0 King’s Cup win over Al Zulfi in between had suggested some recovery. This ended that idea quickly.
Top on Goal Difference
The win takes Al Nassr to six points from two matches and to the top of the table, ahead of Al Hilal on goal difference after the Riyadh rivals also won both their opening fixtures.
It also extends Al Nassr’s dominance of this particular fixture. They are now unbeaten in seven meetings with Al Riyadh, having won six and drawn one, with their most recent league encounter — a 1-0 win in February — settled by a Sadio Mane goal.
Ange Postecoglou’s side have now scored seven and conceded none across their two league matches, with goals from five different players. Having opened the season without their most famous name, they have added him back into a team that was already functioning.
Score: Al Riyadh 0-4 Al Nassr (Abdulelah Al-Amri 18′, Angelo Gabriel 45+1′, Joao Felix 58′, Cristiano Ronaldo 83′)
