IIt’s not yet Easter Sunday. However, Cristiano Ronaldo has decided to bring forward his return to the pitch after being out for more than a month due to injury. He continued on into the starting XI and scored a decisive brace in the second half to seal Al Nasr’s victory over Al Najma (5-2), keeping his side at the top of the SPL and taking his tally to 968 goals.
We had to go back to February 28th to find the last image of Cristiano on the field. The Portuguese star had a tough afternoon during Al Nasr’s win over Al Faiha. He missed a penalty and had to be substituted with 10 minutes left in the game.
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Since then, he has worked tirelessly to return as soon as possible and after starting training with the rest of the squad earlier this week, coach Jorge Jesus decided to keep him in the starting lineup for the match against bottom-placed Al Najma. However, Joan Flix was absent due to suspension. There was no Igo Marnez, there was no Coman…but Simakan, Brozovic and Man were there.
No one wanted to miss his return and there didn’t seem to be a single empty seat at Al Awal Park. In truth, though, Al Nasr struggled to make any headway and their first clear chance came after the first 15 minutes – thanks, of course, to Cristiano, who controlled the ball on the edge of the box and fired without hesitation.
He wasn’t at his best yet, but he seemed very active. On the other hand, Al Nasr gradually picked up the pace and inevitably began to create chances to close in on the opponent’s goal. Cristiano’s first shot from the penalty spot was blocked in the 29th minute, and in the 34th minute he fired a shot wide of the box from the left.
Al Najma managed to withstand an onslaught from an Al Nasr side who tried their best to control the match before half-time. But what no one in Riyadh could have predicted was that Al-Turaich would take the lead by surprise before the fourth official raised the board to signal stoppage time.
The situation looked dangerous for Jorge Jesus’ men. But before entering the locker room tunnel, they rallied to turn the game around. It was Al Hamdan who equalized, and a few seconds later, as luck would have it, Sadio Mann made it 2-1, easing the tension.
Al Nasr’s momentum plummeted after his comeback. Al Najma took advantage of this and caught them off guard to level the match shortly after the start of the second half. The play started with a long goal kick taken by Felipe Cardoso.
Once again, it was Al Nasr’s turn to react…and they did. Less than 10 minutes later, after Cristiano took a free kick, the referee pointed to the penalty spot after Al Hawsawi handled the ball inside the box. Cristiano charged straight towards the ball and made no mistakes. A strong diagonal shot curled just inside the post to equalize the score.
The game didn’t end there, and with just over 15 minutes remaining, he took a pass from Bouchard and fired a shot from the center of the box to decide the game. The goal was initially disallowed and had to be celebrated later. Cristiano has “come back” and reached 23 goals in the league, two ahead of Toni, and Al Nasr also celebrated. Jorge Jesus also did not push him to his limits and was spared in the final minutes when Mann scored his fifth goal.
