Saudi Arabia 38-year-old striker Cristiano Ronaldo opened the scoring, as Al Nassr beat Raja Casablanca 3-1 in the quarter-finals of the 2023 Arab Club Champions Cup.
Scorers: Ronaldo 19, Ghannam 29, Fofana 38 - Madu own goal 41
In the 19th minute, Anderson Talisca received a long pass from his teammate and dribbled into the penalty area, when Ronaldo in the second line asked for the ball. The Brazilian striker played with his teammates, passing it back for the Portuguese superstar to shoot with his left foot from about 16 meters away, sending the ball to the near corner, leaving goalkeeper Anas Zniti unable to block it.
Cristiano Ronaldo spins to celebrate Al Nassr's opening goal against Raja Casablanca at Abha Stadium in Saudi Arabia on August 6, 2023. Photo: ANFC
Ronaldo smiled brightly after the ball went into the net, then ran to his usual corner of the pitch to do a twirling dance to celebrate the goal. Sadio Mane ran up behind and also imitated the 38-year-old striker's goal celebration, as the Senegal star has a habit of doing so when his teammates score.
This was Ronaldo's third consecutive goal for Al Nassr, and also his 841st career goal. He rose to the top of the tournament's Golden Boot race with three goals, equal to former teammate Karim Benzema. However, Benzema had no chance to improve on his record for Al Ittihad, who were eliminated in the quarter-finals the day before.
Al Nassr is rated much higher than Casablanca thanks to the stars in the main squad such as Ronaldo, Talisca, Sadio Mane, Seko Fofana, Marcelo Brozovic and Alex Telles. Meanwhile, the Moroccan representative has no players who have ever made a name for themselves in Europe, and they have not even had their logo updated by Google in the match report.
Ronaldo's opening goal.
After Ronaldo's goal, Al Nassr continued to press and scored two more goals. In the 29th minute, Sultan Al Ghannam received a long pass, controlled the ball with his chest, put it into the penalty area and then shot diagonally to increase the score to 2-0. Nine minutes later, Telles crossed the ball from the left for Fofana to head the ball into the far corner to score another goal. Casablanca only got one goal back when center back Abdullah Madu scored an own goal three minutes later.
In the second half, Ronaldo had two free kick opportunities but neither posed a threat. However, Al Nassr maintained the first half score, to enter the semi-finals against Iraqi club Al-Shorta on August 9. In the other semi-final, Al Hilal will face either Al-Shabab or Al Wahda. It is likely that the final will be contested between two Saudi Arabian clubs.
The Arab Club Champions Cup is an annual tournament for Arab clubs in the Middle East and North Africa. Al Nassr entered this year's tournament at the invitation of the Arab Football Association, without having to play in the qualifying round. The tournament took place from July 27 to August 12 in Saudi Arabia, with 16 teams divided into four groups of four teams each, with the top two teams advancing to the knockout stage.
Al Nassr's fixture list : Nawaf Al-Aqidi; Sultan Al-Ghannam, Ali Al-Oujami, Abdullah Madu, Alex Telles (Konan 87); Marcelo Brozovic, Seko Fofana (Sulaiheem 70); Abdulaziz Al-Alawi (Hassan 87), Anderson Talisca (Elewai 78), Sadio Mane (Abdulrahman Ghareeb 70); Cristiano Ronaldo.
Xuan Binh
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