Cristiano Ronaldo Leads Al Nassr to 3-1 Victory in Harmah
Al Nassr walked into Harmah under pressure and walked out with a 3-1 win, a statement, and the same old storyline: Cristiano Ronaldo still refuses to slow down.
He didn’t just score. He occupied the night.
The Portuguese forward hit the post, forced saves, saw VAR deny him, and still found time to nod in his 982nd career goal as Al Nassr kept pace at the top of the table, shoulder to shoulder with Al Qadsiah and locked in a four-way fight with Al Hilal and Al Ittihad.
Shock to the system
The script flipped early.
Barely four minutes gone and Al Faysaly struck first. Al Hamdan, with space on the edge of the box, shaped his body and whipped a precise shot into the corner. A clean, confident finish and a reminder that Postecoglou’s Al Nassr are not the same steamroller that Jorge Jesus built for the 2025–26 title run.
This version has to suffer more. And in Harmah, they did.
Al Faysaly pressed high, snapped into duels, and refused to let Al Nassr settle. The visitors looked disjointed, their tempo off, their passing predictable. Ronaldo, usually the axis around which everything spins, barely surfaced in the first half.
His one real moment came just after the half-hour. João Félix slipped a clever ball into the channel, Ronaldo opened his body and drove a low shot across goal. It beat the goalkeeper but not the frame of the goal, smacking the woodwork and bouncing away. A warning, nothing more.
Al Nassr trudged into the break behind on the scoreboard and still searching for themselves.
Ronaldo flips the switch
The restart changed everything.
Postecoglou’s side came out with sharper lines, quicker circulation, more conviction. The ball moved faster; so did Ronaldo. The pressure finally told.
From a free kick wide on the flank, João Félix delivered a teasing, arcing cross. Ronaldo attacked it like it was 2013 again, exploding between defenders and thundering a header past Fernando Pacheco. A classic centre-forward goal, his 982nd in a career that keeps stretching belief. The scoreline read 0-2, the comeback complete on paper, even if the game still pulsed with danger.
Al Nassr smelled blood and broke again minutes later. A sweeping counter ended with Ronaldo finishing what looked to be his second of the night and Al Nassr’s third. But the celebrations froze as VAR intervened. The replay showed an earlier offside by Al Hamdan in the move. The goal vanished, the momentum checked.
For a brief spell, Harmah stirred.
Al Faysaly’s response – and Al Nassr’s answer
Jaime Seoane and Theo Bongonda came off the bench and changed the tone. Seoane gave Al Faysaly a bit more brain in midfield; Bongonda gave them teeth.
The Belgian winger found his moment in isolation. A cross came in, he rose and steered a header into the net to make it 1-2. The stadium came alive, and suddenly the league leaders were wobbling again.
Al Nassr, though, had grown into the game. They controlled the rhythm, slowed it when they needed to, sped it up when space appeared. Ronaldo kept hunting his hat-trick. Pacheco denied him superbly on one break, standing tall as the Portuguese bore down, saving with the kind of defiance that kept the scoreline honest.
The decisive punch came after the cooling break.
Refreshed and reset, Al Nassr stitched together one of their best moves of the night. Crisp passing, intelligent movement, and then Angelo arrived to finish it off, sliding home the goal that finally killed the contest. No drama, no VAR this time. Just a clean, collective action to seal the 3-1.
Ronaldo had one goal on the board, another chalked off, a shot off the post, and a handful of chances repelled. He left without the hat-trick he chased but with the match firmly under his imprint.
A title race with no margin
The win drags Al Nassr level with Al Qadsiah at the summit, at least for a few hours. Brendan Rodgers’ Al Qadsiah still have their date with Al Hilal, who sit third and very much in range.
Postecoglou’s men are not cruising like they did under Jorge Jesus. They are grinding, clawing, and leaning heavily on the enduring fury of their No. 7.
If this is what it takes just to stay joint-top in October, what will it demand when the title race tightens and every point feels like a final?
