Cristiano Ronaldo gave Al-Nassr a 1-0 win at Al-Fayha in the first leg of the all-Saudi Arabian Asian Champions League second-round clash on Wednesday.
The result means that the Riyadh giants are very much in the driving seat ahead of next week’s return match and on course for the quarter-finals.
Chances and excitement were hard to come by in this low-key game which looked to be heading toward a goalless conclusion until Ronaldo struck with nine minutes remaining after good work from the impressive Marcelo Brozovic.
Al-Nassr made most of the running in the early stages without creating much in the way of chances. The best came after 15 minutes as Aymeric Laporte headed wide at the far post from a free-kick that Brozovic had floated over from the right.
The men in yellow kept pushing and probing, cheered on by their fans in the Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium in Riyadh, though there was little to get excited about in the first half.
Ronaldo had a shot on target right on the stroke of the break for an Al-Nassr team that boasted 79 percent possession in the first half. The Portuguese megastar chested down a cross from the left and had enough space to shoot from just outside the six-yard box. However, goalkeeper Vladimir Stojkovic was equal to the challenge and made the save.
Al-Nassr tried to up the tempo after the break but still struggled to fashion clear chances.
It looked as if it would take something truly spectacular to open the scoring and Anderson Talisca came close to doing so with an overhead kick midway through the second half that bounced just wide. Meanwhile, the hosts had found themselves in promising positions at times but could not find the right final pass.
The same applied to Al-Nassr as balls were flying across the face of goal without anyone getting on the end of them. As the game entered the final 10 minutes it looked as if the first leg would end goalless, but then came Ronaldo.
A clever give and go with Brozovic lifted the ball over the defense on the edge of the area, and the former Real Madrid and Manchester United legend deftly lifted the ball over Stojkovic from just outside the six-yard box. Chants of “Cristiano Ronaldo” could be heard around the stadium and they were repeated as the final whistle sounded.
The two teams meet in the second leg next Wednesday at the home of Al-Nassr.
Earlier in the west zone — the competition is divided into two geographic halves until the final — Nasaf of Uzbekistan were held to a 0-0 draw by Al-Ain of the UAE.
The second-round action continues on Thursday when Al-Hilal travel to Sepahan of Iran while Uzbekistan’s Navbahor host Al-Ittihad.