Cristiano Ronaldo opened his account in this edition of the AFC Champions League Elite in dramatic fashion as he scored with his weaker foot for Al Nassr, against Al Rayyan at the King Saud University Stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.
With the team leading 1-0, we got the ball on the right side of the penalty box and shot with his left foot as the ball curled in to kiss the net in the 76th minute. The 39-year-old ran to the corner of the field and raised both his hands up in the air, dedicating the goal to his father, who would have been 71 years old on this day.
“Today’s goal has a different flavour… I wish my father was alive because today is his birthday,” Ronaldo said after the match. It was his eighth goal for Al Nassr this season, with the forward assisting two more goals for the Saudi Arabian side so far.
The strike proved to be the difference as Al Rayyan’s Roger Guedes pulled a goal back late in the second half, with the match ending 2-1 in Nassr’s favour.
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The win propelled Nassr to third in the group standings in the Champions League.
Ronaldo had missed the first match of the Champions League with a viral infection and looked promising from kick-off against the Qatari outfit on Tuesday. He came close to scoring four times, including a goal which was chalked off-side by the thinnest if margins.
Nassr hosts Al Orobah FC in its next match four days later, looking to win the Saudi Pro League for the first time after Ronaldo’s move to the Saudi side last year.
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