Al-Nassr’s defensive errors prove costly as Al-Ain seal a commanding victory
Houssine Rahimi strikes twice as Al-Ain dominate Ronaldo-led Al-Nassr
AL AIN: Saudi Pro League champions Al-Nassr endured a humiliating 4-0 defeat against Al-Ain of the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, making a disastrous start to their Asian Champions League Elite campaign.
Cristiano Ronaldo and his Al-Nassr teammates struggled throughout the contest as Al-Ain produced a dominant display, with Houssine Rahimi scoring twice before Soufiane Rahimi and Giorgos Giakoumakis added further goals.
Al-Ain opened the scoring in the 25th minute after Houssine Rahimi capitalised on a poorly weighted back-pass from Saad Al-Nasser. Rahimi intercepted the ball and calmly finished through the legs of goalkeeper Nawaf Al-Aqidi.
The hosts doubled their advantage in the 63rd minute when Rahimi found the net again, side-footing the ball home from around eight yards to put Al-Ain firmly in control.
Al-Ain continued to threaten and scored their third goal when Soufiane Rahimi timed his run perfectly onto Alejandro Romero’s through ball. Staying onside, he fired a first-time effort into the bottom corner.
Giakoumakis completed the rout in the 85th minute. Soufiane Rahimi turned provider, rolling the ball into the path of the Greek forward, who finished confidently from around 15 yards.
“We knew it was going to be tough, we had to give it our all and I think we did that,” Giakoumakis said after the match.
“We were really mature from the first to the last moment and we managed to score a good amount of goals and have a good victory.”
The heavy defeat leaves Al-Nassr with plenty to address as they continue their campaign in the expanded Asian Champions League Elite competition.
In another league-phase fixture, four-time champions Al-Hilal secured a 2-1 victory over Qatar’s Al-Gharafa in Riyadh.
The match saw both sides reduced to 10 players after separate incidents involving Crysencio Summerville and Al-Gharafa’s Ismael Bennacer.
Summerville was sent off in the 32nd minute following an altercation with Abdulrahman Al-Rashidi. Bennacer was subsequently shown a red card after becoming involved in the confrontation that followed.
Al-Hilal took the lead three minutes into first-half stoppage time when Ruben Neves converted from the penalty spot. The penalty was awarded after Al-Rashidi brought down winger Saimon Bouabre inside the area.
Al-Hilal doubled their advantage 17 minutes from full time when Sergej Milinkovic-Savic’s header took a deflection and went beyond goalkeeper Ahmed Kone.
Al-Gharafa managed to pull a goal back deep into stoppage time through Alaa Eddin Hasan, who scored from distance, but Al-Hilal held on to claim all three points.
The expanded 16-team league phase will see the top eight finishers advance to the knockout rounds in March. The quarter-finals, semi-finals and final are scheduled to be played in Saudi Arabia in April and May.