LONDON: The Saudi Pro League finally returned to action after the new extended FIFA international break, with Cristiano Ronaldo putting a few challenging weeks behind him with a goal and Ollie Watkins continuing to show his worth for Al-Hilal. Here are five things we learned from the latest round of action.
Ronaldo is back
Cristiano Ronaldo makes headlines wherever he goes, and that is true on both international and domestic stages. He scored the opening goal in Al-Nassr’s 3-0 win over Al-Diriyah. With the newly promoted visitors in decent form so far this season, it was a welcome, comfortable win for the champions.
After the Manchester City financial scandal in the Premier League, Ronaldo’s widely publicized falling out with Jorge Jesus, Al-Nassr’s former manager and now head coach of the Portuguese national team, has dominated the headlines.
But if Ronaldo’s international career does turn out to be over — and there has been plenty said already about there being no way back — it can only benefit Al-Nassr.
Club coach Ange Postecoglou said before the game that Ronaldo looked energized, focused and dangerous, and that will be music to the ears of fans in Riyadh as he scored goal number 980. More importantly, it keeps Al-Nassr just two points off the top.
Watkins shows he is not just about goals
Ollie Watkins was one of the most reliable goalscorers in the Premier League for years and he demonstrated his prowess once again, helping Al-Hilal defeat Al-Ittihad 3-2 in the Saturday night blockbuster.
The England striker struck again and, in just five games, has found the back of the net five times, with four assists. His all-round play and game awareness have also been top class.
Al-Hilal fans are starting to realize his power. For the first goal he drove down the right to square the ball for Gabriel Martinelli who could not miss. After Al-Ittihad quickly equalized, there he was to quickly restore Al-Hilal’s lead, taking advantage of a defensive mistake to find the target. And, for the winning goal, he was there again, picking the ball up deep to spray a perfect pass for Crysencio Summerville to curl one home, a goal worthy of winning the Saudi Clasico.
Al-Ahli look good but questions remain
It has not been the easiest of seasons so far for the Asian Champions and there has been pressure on new coach Marino Pusic, but he will be delighted that his team won 4-0 at Al-Fateh.
It is now three wins out of four for the Jeddah giants and they could have been three or four goals up by the time Francisco Trincao scored from close range just after the half hour. The Portuguese international added a second after the break and there was still time for Ivan Toney to get his usual goal and Ziyad Al-Johani to add a fourth.
Al-Ahli are in sixth on 15 points, six behind leaders Al-Hilal. There is still a long way to go but questions remain. It is one thing to dominate a team struggling in the relegation zone but, this season, The Greens have struggled against their title rivals, losing to Al-Qadsiah and Al-Hilal. Start winning those big games and Pusic could be around for some time to come.
Al-Qadsiah have firepower worthy of challenge
For 24 hours Al-Qadsiah were sitting on top of the Saudi Pro League after a devastating 5-0 destruction of Al-Kholood on Friday, a performance made even more impressive following the hosts’ impressive start to the season.
It was Al-Qadsiah’s biggest win in the top tier since 2011. Head coach Brendan Rodgers was delighted, and even more pleasing to the former Liverpool boss was the fact that the goals were all courtesy of five different scorers.
Tijjani Reijnders has impressed following his move from Manchester City, and got the ball rolling with a fine free-kick early on. Then Christopher Bonsu Baah and Musab Al-Juwayr made it three before the break. Regular scorers Mateo Retegui and Julian Quinones then got in on the act to finish a perfect evening.
2 points dropped for impressive Neom
A 1-1 draw at Al-Hazem is not usually anything to get too upset about but Neom will be disappointed. This is partly because expectations are rising at the club and victory would have put the team into fourth place with 18 points, instead of fifth with 16.
Neom dominated and should have won the clash. Once Said Benrahma equalized in the 55th minute, the visitors had the chances to go on and take maximum points. The chances were spurned but it has been a great season so far for the club. If they can be a little more clinical in front of goal, it could be even better.