Al-Nassr powered by a brace from Cristiano Ronaldo and Sadio Mane restarted their campaign for the Saudi League Title with an emphatic 5-2 victory over bottom placed Al-Najma in Riyadh on Friday night.
Ronaldo, returning to the side after a brief absence due to a hamstring injury led his team from the front with two goals and ensured that the early goal from Al-Najma had no impact whatsoever on the outcome of the contest.
Sadio Mane too was in sublime form and scored two fine goals to make a massive contribution to his team. His consistency has been phenomenal this season and though the Knights of Najd were without their brilliant playmaker in Joao Felix, Sane, Ronaldo, Alhamddan and Angelo coordinated seamlessly on the field. It was Al-Nassr’s 15th straight win, a staggering statistic indeed.
Al-Najma did not play badly and at one point of time the score was levelled at 2-2. But then the quality of Al-Nassr surmounted their resistance and eventually Al-Najma slumped to yet another defeat.
With the win, Al-Nassr, further consolidated their position at the top of the RSL table putting pressure on Al-Hilal to win against a tough Al-Taawoun side.
It was expected to be a keen contest and so it turned out to be. Al-Hilal initially led by a goal but then a fine brace from Girotto helped Al-Taawoun take a 2-1 lead. Leonardo then equalised in the 77th minute to help Al-Hilal to a 2-2 draw ( 8th in the RSL this season). Al-Hilal dropped two points though and now are 5 points behind Al-Nassr and ahead of Al-Ahli only on goal difference.
With 7 games to go, Al-Nassr have their noses in front and will not be easy for the others to dismantle them from their perch at the moment.