Al-Nasr vs Al-Raed. Will Ronaldo and company drive out their anger at the midfield?
On Thursday, August 22, the first round match of the Saudi Arabian Championship will take place at the Al-Awal Stadium in Riyadh between the teams Al-Nasr and Al-Raed.
Cristiano Ronaldo and company started the new season in the same way as their entire previous campaign – Al-Nasr showed excellent play, but only until the moment when they crossed paths with the main offender of the last months – the champion Al-Hilal, who remained “kryptonite” for Luis Castro’s charges. In the Saudi Arabian Super Cup, Al-Nasr first confidently defeated Al-Taawoun with a score of 2:0, but in the final the “yellow-blues” only had enough to score the first goal in the Al-Hilal goal at the end of the first half. In the second half, the champion scored 4 unanswered goals at once, and three of them – within 9 minutes! Ronaldo was simply furious with such a game of his defense, and in the end did not stay for the award ceremony, leaving the field early. The Portuguese can be understood – his team has not been able to beat Al-Hilal in 6 matches in a row, and in 11 if we are talking about regular time.
Perhaps the reason for the failure in the game with the main rival was the disqualification of midfielder Marcelo Brozovic, who should return for the first round match in the championship. But midfielder Ayman Yahya, who was injured and replaced in the middle of the first half in the Super Cup final, will probably not have time to recover by Thursday.
Al-Raed
The charges of Brazilian specialist Odair Ellman showed themselves to be quite a strong team last season, taking the final 12th place in the tournament table, and presenting several loud surprises during the campaign. In particular, they beat Al-Nasr in the second round at its stadium with a score of 3:1. At that time, Ronaldo and company were just starting a busy schedule with continental tournament matches mixed with the domestic championship, which Al-Raed took advantage of.
Are the mid-table team ready to give the angry favorite a fight this time? There have been no major personnel changes at Al-Raed this summer, so we can expect the same competent and disciplined football from Odair's charges as before. The only thing is that the coaching staff has several personnel problems. One of the few newcomers, Zakaria Hawsawi, who moved from Al-Ittihad, is injured, and forward Karim El-Berkaoui is also not in the best shape, but his participation in the match on the vice-champion's field is still an open question.
Our Expert Predictions & Analysis on Al-Nasr vs Al-Raed
Al-NasrCristiano Ronaldo and company started the new season in the same way as their entire previous campaign – Al-Nasr showed excellent play, but only until the moment when they crossed paths with the main offender of the last months – the champion Al-Hilal, who remained “kryptonite” for Luis Castro’s charges. In the Saudi Arabian Super Cup, Al-Nasr first confidently defeated Al-Taawoun with a score of 2:0, but in the final the “yellow-blues” only had enough to score the first goal in the Al-Hilal goal at the end of the first half. In the second half, the champion scored 4 unanswered goals at once, and three of them – within 9 minutes! Ronaldo was simply furious with such a game of his defense, and in the end did not stay for the award ceremony, leaving the field early. The Portuguese can be understood – his team has not been able to beat Al-Hilal in 6 matches in a row, and in 11 if we are talking about regular time.
Perhaps the reason for the failure in the game with the main rival was the disqualification of midfielder Marcelo Brozovic, who should return for the first round match in the championship. But midfielder Ayman Yahya, who was injured and replaced in the middle of the first half in the Super Cup final, will probably not have time to recover by Thursday.
Al-Raed
The charges of Brazilian specialist Odair Ellman showed themselves to be quite a strong team last season, taking the final 12th place in the tournament table, and presenting several loud surprises during the campaign. In particular, they beat Al-Nasr in the second round at its stadium with a score of 3:1. At that time, Ronaldo and company were just starting a busy schedule with continental tournament matches mixed with the domestic championship, which Al-Raed took advantage of.
Are the mid-table team ready to give the angry favorite a fight this time? There have been no major personnel changes at Al-Raed this summer, so we can expect the same competent and disciplined football from Odair's charges as before. The only thing is that the coaching staff has several personnel problems. One of the few newcomers, Zakaria Hawsawi, who moved from Al-Ittihad, is injured, and forward Karim El-Berkaoui is also not in the best shape, but his participation in the match on the vice-champion's field is still an open question.
Al-Nasr vs Al-Raed facts
- Al-Nasr's squad is more than 12 times more "expensive" than Al-Raed's squad (144 million euros versus 11.33 million)
- Al-Nasr are unbeaten in 11 consecutive Saudi League matches – 9 wins and 2 draws
- Al-Raed also has an unbeaten streak in the championship, but it is much more modest – 4 matches, 3 of which ended in a draw
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