Cristiano Ronaldo Scores in Dramatic Draw as Al Nassr Opens Saudi Pro League Campaign

The Portuguese forward scored for Al Nassr against Al Raed

In his debut in the 2024/2025 season of the Saudi Professional League, Al Nassr led by Cristiano Ronaldo drew 1-1 at home against Al Raed and continues to struggle to regain form after their heavy defeat in the Supercup final against Al Hilal (1-4). The Portuguese had an intense match filled with various emotions and ended up frustrated, despite being the author of his team’s only goal.

CR7 opened the scoring in the 34th minute with a powerful header. The Portuguese forward elevated himself and connected with a precise cross from Sadio Mané to make it 1-0. In addition to his classic celebration with the jump and turn showing his back to the stands and pointing to his number 7, Cristiano also showed off a dance move, waving his right arm.

At the 49th minute, a foul was called against the French defender Aymeric Laporte which led to the equalizer by Mohamed Fouzair. The defender escaped a red card and was only cautioned for the foul.

The 39-year-old player, who recently caused a stir on social media with the launch of his YouTube channel, had a significant performance despite the draw and not achieving his long-awaited 900th club goal, as a goal he scored in the 75th minute was disallowed for offside while making it 2-1.

The Portuguese forward scored the 2-1 for Al Nassr and reached his 900th goal, but the goal was disallowed for offside

The referee called the offside at the request of the semi-automatic VAR, which detected a fine offside position of Ronaldo’s left shoulder in relation to the last defender. The Bug had pushed the ball into the net after a pass from Croatian Marcelo Brozovic, but his shout for a goal, dedicated to his fans, was caught in his throat.

As Al Nassr was seeking victory at the end of the match, a controversial incident occurred in the eighth minute of added time when the entire local team claimed a penalty for a handball in the area by the Al Raed defender. The referee went to the VAR, but considered that the player’s arm did not increase in volume after Mané’s cross and the match continued, despite Cristiano and his teammates’ evident frustration.

The Al Nassr player protested after the referee did not call a penalty for his team at the end of the match

After the debut in the Saudi league, Al Nassr will be back on Tuesday, August 27, as a visitor against Al Feiha and will host Al Ahli Saudi on September 13.