Author: Amrit Santlani
Cristiano Ronaldo scored an incredible hat-trick, while Sadio Mané netted a brace as Al Nassr thrashed Al Fateh 5-0 to claim their first win in the Saudi Pro League 2023-24.
After failing to open the scoring in two games, Al Nassri finally got their campaign off to a flying start thanks to their two stars.
Mané opened the scoring in the 28th minute after receiving a provocation from Ronaldo. The Portuguese striker then scored twice, before the former Bayern Munich star completed his brace. Cristiano completed his hat-trick with a third goal late on after an assist from Nawaf Boushal.
Al Nassr’s new signing Otavia had the first sight of goal in the third minute, but couldn’t keep his header on target. Mane got to the by-line and set up Ronaldo, but the 38-year-old was denied by Jacob Rinne. The former Manchester United player sent the ball into Mané’s goal and the deadlock was broken.
The whole stadium cheered when Ronaldo scored his first goal of the season with a perfect header to bury Sultan Al-Ghannam’s cross. The score remained 2-0 at half-time, but soon after the restart, Al Fateh’s defense was caught by surprise, Abdulrahman Ghareeb got in on goal, but had no mercy in setting up Ronaldo to score twice.
Lucas Zelarayán wasted a golden opportunity to revive the team, shooting over the goal after a good save from Nawaf Alaqidi. Al Fateh were caught on the counter-attack at the other end, and Mané buried a header to make it 4-0, and he also hit the “SIUU” to celebrate.
Firas Al-Buraikan missed a shot from three meters, and the miss more or less summed up Al Fateh’s problems.
With a simple tap-in at the end of the game, Ronaldo completed his hat-trick to add more gloss to the scoreline and Al Nassr jumped to 10th place in the standings, two places below Al Fateh.
Brazilian midfielder Petros played for 60 minutes, but was badly beaten by the likes of Marcelo Brozovic and others.