Al Nassr vs Al Hilal, the biggest derby in Saudi Arabia. The luster of the match is only harmed by Neymar’s injury, with which the duel would have gained even more brilliance. Semifinal Super Cup in the end Al Hilal dominated, but the match was accompanied by several strange verdicts from the referee.
Al Hilal clearly won 3:0 in the last match between them. Milinkovič-Savič scored once and his national team colleague Mitrovič scored twice.
The game was evenly matched statistically, but productivity was the deciding factor. In addition, after Ronaldo’s close offside, the guests were not awarded an equalizing goal. Al Nasr’s biggest stars didn’t like the way he was booed.
Al Nassr succumbed to his opponent
Already in the 2nd minute of the match, Neves shot dangerously, goalkeeper Al-Nassru just kicked the ball away and Al-Dawsari missed the open goal from the stop. David Ospina had to go to the ground even in the 15th minute, when he fantastically eliminated Al Bulayh’s shot.
Al-Nassr could be seen to have learned from the last loss. The players in blue and yellow did not allow their opponent to play standard situations, and when there was one, Laporte et al. they performed defense duties.
Cristiano Ronaldo had the best chance of the first half, who went alone to the goalkeeper Boun, but he did not hit the goal. However, the most controversial moment came at the very end of the half. The ground pass from Mané fell to the back post, where Otávio cleared it without any problems. However, after examination, the referee blew the whistle for offside.
It must be added that Ronaldo, who was offside, reached for the ball in vain, but he did not reach the ball. According to many fans, Otávio was in no way offside. According to the set trend of the present time, it was allegedly a regular goal.
In the 62nd minute, Al-Dawsari opened the scoring with a beautiful shot at the back post. 10 minutes later, the blues could rejoice for the second time. Michaela’s cross found the head of Malcom, who knew his way around with a header at penalty level.
In the video below, you can see Ronaldo’s wrestling takedown in the penalty area during a corner kick. It is striking that the intervention was not examined by the VAR system, while it was a clear penalty intervention.
Ronaldo could not handle the heated atmosphere at the end of the match and allowed himself to be sent off. Without him, Al Nassr only corrected the score with Mané’s goal. The famous seven is still waiting for its first competition trophy in the jersey of the Saudi Arabian team.
Source: Saudi Pro League, X