During the first 45 minutes of his most recent match, Cristiano Ronaldo’s rough start to life in Saudi Arabia continued.
The 37-year-old player decided to stop playing in Europe at the end of last year, and his bad breakup with Manchester United was made official in November. Ronaldo’s camp had said at first that he would only play for a Champions League team.
But when it became clear that the market wouldn’t happen, he decided to go to the Middle East with Al-Nassr. The Portuguese legend said that he moved to Saudi Arabia because he wanted to play football there, not because he was offered £173 million per year.
Even though his famous career was coming to an end, most people thought that once the football started, the drop in quality would be clear. But if he or his fans thought things would be easy when he joined the Pro League, they were quickly proven wrong.
Ronaldo didn’t score in his first two games for Al-Nassr. In his second game, Rudi Garcia’s team crashed out of the Saudi State Cup. Garcia said that the veteran’s miss against Al-Ittihad was the key moment in their most recent loss.
He also said that his new teammates would have to learn quickly to change how they play with Ronaldo and not just pass the ball to him every time they had a chance. On Friday, he stood in line for Al-Nassr for the third time as they took an Al-Fateh.
Ronaldo has seemed like a much happier person in his cameos so far. He has been encouraging his teammates instead of complaining at them like he did at Old Trafford. But as his lack of goals kept getting worse, the first signs of frustration started to show.
In the first half, Al-Fateh took the lead when Cristian Tello scored against the run of play because the goalie was bad. Then Ronaldo thought he had finally scored, but the assistant referee called it back because Ronaldo was offside.
But a few minutes later, he had another chance to open his account. Anderson Talisca, who has often been better than his more famous strike partner, made a strong run into the box and shot a ball that hit the inside of the post. The ball came back to Ronaldo in a helpful way, but instead of stroking it into the open goal, he grabbed it and shot well over the crossbar.
After Ronaldo made a mistake, it was the turn of his teammates to try to keep him going and calm him down. Talisca quickly saved his face with a great finish, proving that they have more than one superstar, as Garcia had said.
Garcia told his players before the game that they shouldn’t just focus on Ronaldo but also on Talisca. “It’s very important for the players to play normally and not always try to give the ball to Cristiano,” Garcia said.
“I told them that they need to make good decisions on the field. When Cristiano or Talisca are on their own and ask for the ball, it’s obvious that we should give it to them. These two players can make a big difference.
As the half went on, Ronaldo’s anger grew. First, he was ignored when he was standing alone in the box, throwing his arms in the air after a shot was blocked. Then, when he saw another shot hit the crossbar and go out for a goal kick, he got angry.
After the break, things didn’t get much better. Al-Fateh took the lead back with a great shot from far away. But as the game went into extra time, Ronaldo was finally able to speak up.
Al-Nassr got a penalty for a rough tackle, and Talisca looked like he was going to take it. But Ronaldo took the ball from him and shot right down the middle. The game ended up being a tie, 2-2, when Talisca was given a red card just before the referee blew the final whistle.
