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Cristiano Ronaldo misses sitter from just yards out as Al Nassr star left flummoxed
Cristiano Ronaldo missed a sitter for Al-Nassr.
A low left-wing cross arrived in the box and Ronaldo pounced on some hesitancy in the opposition's defence. The ball deflected perfectly into the striker's path via a defender and all Ronaldo needed to do was poke the ball into the unguarded goal from inside the six-yard box.
Instead, the 38-year-old tamely prodded the ball towards goal with his right foot and his effort was saved by the legs of the goalkeeper. The save was enough to divert the ball away from Ronaldo's path, otherwise, he would surely have had a simple tap-in.
The usually prolific attacker was left standing in the six-yard box with his hands on his head, dismayed that he had not put his side ahead. Al-Taawoun could not believe their luck as they stormed up the other end of the pitch on a dangerous counter-attack.
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It was Ronaldo's wonderful assist that gave Al-Nassr a 1-0 lead. Ronaldo curled an exquisite pass into the path of Abdulrahman Ghareeb to put the Riyadh-based side ahead. But they were pegged back by Alvaro Medran's strike two minutes into the second half.
Al-Taawoun thought they had gone 2-1 ahead soon after but they had a goal disallowed for offside upon review. Ronaldo might have felt even sillier had that counted, after failing to score what seemed like a simple goal just moments earlier.
But Ronaldo did eventually get the last laugh. He bagged his second assist of the game, setting up Abdullah Madu - the man Ronaldo replaced as captain when he joined Al-Nassr at the start of January. Although the assist did have a slice of fortune about it, with the Portuguese icon attempting to poke a powerful goal-bound shot in, only for the ball to hit his heel and fall to Madu who was standing behind him.
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Ronaldo's start to life in Saudi Arabia has been a mixed bag despite him recently scoring a hat-trick. He came under fire only last month after being blamed for failing to find the net for Al-Nassr. The legendary forward also missed another sitter in their Saudi Super Cup defeat by Nuno Espirito Santo’s Al-Ittihad in January.
Boss Rudi Garcia said afterwards: “One of the things that changed the course of the match was Cristiano's missed opportunity in the first half.
“I congratulate Al-Ittihad. They presented a much better first half than us, and we played a good second half, but unfortunately, we were not able to adjust the result. It's true that we regret losing the Super Cup, but we are still the first in the league.”