10-man Al Nassr is knocked out in the quarterfinals of the AFC Champions League by UAE’s Al Ain at the King Saud Stadium on March 12, 2024.
Nassr headed into the game trailing by a goal which was scored by Ain’s Soufiane Rahimi in the first leg and it would have hoped for a better start tonight as well.
AL Ain scored two goals in the first half in the 28th and 45th minute, courtesy of Rahimi once again. The first one came after Matias Palacios played it to Rahimi on the left flank. The forward pushed ahead and finished it in the bottom right corner. Initially, the referee had called off-side but VAR intervened and awarded the goal.
The second goal came when Rahimi got hold of the ball outside the box on the left and caught the keeper off-guard with a quick curling finish in the bottom left corner.
Al Ain could have had a three-goal lead heading into halftime but Al Nassr pulled one back moments before the whistle. in the fifth minute of added time, Marcelo Brozovic passed it to Sadio Mane on the counter as the winger went wide with the ball on the left. The keeper made a hasty decision and charged behind the ball, leaving his goal empty as Mane dribbled around the keeper and passed it to Abdulrahman Ghareeb inside the box who finished into the empty net.
Al Nassr went into the second half with all guns blazing by pushing high numbers up front and getting into good goalscoring areas.
In the 47th minute, Otavia made a blunder as he managed to dribble into the box with a defender breathing down his neck, however, he took too much time to unleash a shot and the ball was stolen away from him, right in front of the goal.
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Otavio did redeem himself in the 51st minute with a goal to his name. The Portuguese forward received the ball from Mane deep in the left wing and instead of crossing it in, the player shot it towards the keeper with a lot of power and the ball was deflected by the keeper’s thigh and into the net.
Nassr, just one goal behind came teasingly close to equalising on aggregate in the 61st minute. Ronaldo was 3 yards away from the goal when the ball landed on his feet after an error from the keeper and the five-time Ballon d’Or winner missed the target leaving everyone in shock.
In the 72nd minute, Nassr won a freekick, which was taken by Alex Telles. The full-back crossed it into the box, but neither side got a touch of it and the keeper missed it too as the ball landed in the back of the net. Nassr had completed its comeback.
The game went onto extra time but Nassr incurred a huge loss when substitute, Ayaman Yahya was shown a red card in the 98th minute. Ain made the most of this advantage as moments later in the 103rd minute, super-sub Al Shamsi scored for the away side.
The game was Al Ain’s to lose as it almost won in extra-time, however, in the 116th minute, defender Saeed Juma brought down Ronaldo inside the box and gifted a penalty to Nassr.
Ronaldo stepped up and comfortably finished it down the middle from the spot in the 118th minute and pushed the game onto a penalty shootout.
Nassr’s Brozovic, Telles and Otavio missed their penalties and Al Ain on the other hand had a perfect record from the spot as all three of its players, Rahimi, Kaku and Shamshi scored from the spot. The penalty shootout ended 1-3 with Ronaldo converting his, but that wasn’t enough for the home side.
Al Ain goes into the semifinals of the AFC Champions League and Al Nassr’s bad run continues.
Result: Al Nassr (4) 4-3 (4) Al Ain (1-3 PK)
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