Cristiano Ronaldo shines with a double, Al Nassr remain unbeaten

Al Nassr returned to their home stadium to face second-bottom Al Akhdoud and immediately took control of the match. Early chances came from Ronaldo, Felix and Kingsley Coman, but the breakthrough did not arrive until the 31st minute. From Abdulelah Al-Amri’s header, Ronaldo positioned himself perfectly to finish and open the scoring.

With the lead secured, Al Nassr grew in confidence. In stoppage time of the first half, Marcelo Brozovic delivered a cross that Ronaldo converted with a brilliant finish to complete his brace. The hosts went into the break leading 2-0 and continued to apply pressure after halftime.

In the 66th minute, Ronaldo nearly completed his hat-trick with a header, but the goal was ruled out for offside against Sultan Al-Ghannam in the build-up. Al Nassr finally sealed the result in the 93rd minute, when a swift counter-attack ended with Joao Felix scoring to make it 3-0.

The win keeps Al Nassr top of the Saudi Pro League standings. Remarkably, they remain unbeaten with ten consecutive victories and now hold a four-point lead over Al Hilal. Ronaldo’s brace also saw him move joint-top of the league’s scoring chart alongside teammate Joao Felix.

Speaking after the match, Ronaldo said: “We’re on a good path, but we need to carry on. The season is long. We are in a good moment, we played well today, scored three goals, and we have to continue like that. Nobody wins the championship in the middle of the season, so we need to keep going.”

“We have to think game by game. We have difficult matches in three days, so we need to recover and prepare. But this is our life, our job. Tomorrow, we will start training for the next game,” he added.

Al Nassr will face Al Ettifaq in their final match of 2025 at 00:30 on 31 December. After the New Year, they travel to play Al Ahli on 3 January before returning home to face Al Qadisiya on 9 January.