Spending a lot After a shocking 2-0 home loss to Al Taawoun on Friday, Al Nassr and Christiano Ronaldo has gotten off to a rough start in the Saudi Pro League. Star players Cristiano Ronaldo, Sadio Mane, Anderson Talisca, and Marcelo Brozovic were all held t a goaless night while the visiting ran away as winners..
Leandre Tawamba, a Cameroonian forward, headed a wide-open corner kick in the 20th minute to get the visitors going. Al Taawoun’s five-man defense and sure-handed goalkeeper then troubled Ronaldo and Al Nassr all night long before substitute Ahmed Bahusayn sealed the victory in stoppage time.
Many of Al Nassr’s key players were rested after winning the Arab Club Champions Cup 48 hours earlier, which is thought to have contributed to their 2-1 loss to Steven Gerrard’s Al Ettifaq on the opening weekend. They were all back on the pitch, but Al Taawoun still defeated them thanks to their flawless game plan of defending in numbers and counterattacking through Mateus, a quick Brazilian winger.
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Although Al Nassr outshot Al Taawoun 24-8, they only managed to get five of those shots on target as opposed to the visitors’ six.
On a frustrating night for the home team, Marcelo Brozovic fired straight at the goalkeeper, Anderson Talisca missed on a couple of headers in the box, Sadio Mane had a goal disallowed, there was a late goal-line clearance, Cristiano Ronaldo hammered a ball against the post from an offside position, and there was a late goal-line clearance.
Al Nassr finished in second position and fell short of winning the Saudi championship in 2022–2023 by five points. They could currently find themselves six points behind the leaders by the end of Matchday 2 if they continue their current pace.