No trophy for Ronaldo! Al Nassr suffer third straight defeat after loss to Al Hilal

The Riyadh derby began at a high tempo, with both sides creating chances but failing to find the target. In the 41st minute, Kingsley Coman’s loose pass fell kindly to Ronaldo, and the Portuguese forward made no mistake, scoring his 959th career goal to give Al Nassr a 1-0 lead at the break.

After half-time, Al Nassr continued to push forward but were unable to extend their advantage. The turning point came in the 57th minute when Mohamed Simakan conceded a penalty, allowing Salem Al-Dawsari to level the score. Moments later, following a VAR review, goalkeeper Nawaf Alaqidi was shown a red card, leaving Al Nassr a man down.

Reduced to 10 men, Al Nassr struggled to cope. In the 81st minute, Mohamed Kanno finished from close range to put Al Hilal ahead. Deep into stoppage time, Al Hilal were awarded another penalty after Al-Dawsari was fouled, and Ruben Neves calmly converted to seal a 3-1 victory.

Al Hilal coach Jorge Jesus said after the match: “Given the situations that occurred in the match between two big teams, Al Nassr were the better side before the red card. Nawaf’s red card was extremely harsh and caused a clear imbalance in our team.

“It’s true that Al Hilal have more experience and are used to handling matches with high mental and psychological pressure. We, on the other hand, faced problems after the departure of Mané and the absence of Simakan.”

The win extends Al Hilal’s lead over Al Nassr to seven points. After starting the season with 10 straight wins, Al Nassr have now suffered a draw followed by three consecutive defeats. They sit on 31 points, level with third-placed Al Taawoun but having played one game more, putting their title hopes in serious doubt.

Al Nassr’s upcoming fixtures include matches against Al Shabab (18 January), Damac (22 January), Al Taawoun (27 January) and Al Kholood (31 January).