Al Nasr vs Al Wahda: Will Ronaldo's team continue to win under new coach?

On Friday, September 27, the fifth round match of the Saudi Arabian Championship between Al-Nasr and Al-Wahda will take place at the Al-Awal Stadium in Riyadh.

• Expert Predictions Analysis
• Al Nasr vs Al Wahda facts
• Odds
• Game Totals Prediction

Our Expert Predictions & Analysis on Al Nasr vs Al Wahda

Al Nasr

The management of the club from Riyadh decided to change the head coach already at the start of the season - instead of the Portuguese Luis Castro, the Italian Stefano Pioli came to correct the situation, who led Milan to the "scudetto" in Serie A, and is now ready to repeat his success with the Saudi grandee.

Pioli's start to Al-Nasr's tenure can be considered satisfactory. The team under his guidance first confidently dealt with a difficult match of the Saudi League against Al-Ittifaq, led by Englishman Steven Gerrard (3:0), and then, with great difficulty, defeated the representative of the lower division Al-Hazm (2:1) in the match for the country's cup, scoring a goal already in injury time.

The difficulties that Al-Nasr faced in the last cup match can be explained by the absence of several key players from the giants. In particular, the main star of the yellow-blues, Cristiano Ronaldo, also got a break. However, by the new round of the championship, Al-Nasr's top scorer should already be ready, as well as the rest of his famous teammates.

The home team only has midfielder Sami Al-Najei in the infirmary, but this player can hardly be called a significant loss.

Al Wahda

German coach Josef Zinnbauer is unable to make his team play stable football and, most importantly, consistently achieve results at the start of the new campaign. Al-Wahda started the championship well – with 4 points in 2 rounds. But then there was a failure – a terrible 1:7 defeat to Al-Ittihad, which also dragged along with it a home failure in a game with the much more modest Al-Khulud (0:1).

The situation was slightly improved in the match for the country's cup against the first league Al-Faisaly, which Al-Wahda won and advanced to the next stage. But here too they had to fray the fans' nerves - 1:1 and victory only in a penalty shootout.

Zinnbauer's team will arrive at Al-Nasr with two personnel problems. Due to disqualification, right-back Bandar Darwish will not be able to take part in the match, and due to injury, it is highly likely that central defender Abdullah Al-Hafeet will not play on Friday - he was substituted in the first half of the cup match earlier in the week.

Al Nasr vs Al Wahda facts

• Al-Nasr are unbeaten in 15 league matches in a row (11 wins, 4 draws)
• Al-Nasr have won only one of their last four home matches in the Saudi league (the other three ended in a 1-1 draw)
• Al-Wehda have conceded 15 goals in their last four away league games, six of which were scored by Al-Nasr at the end of last season

Odds from download 1xbet

In the bookmaker 1xbet, the Al-Nasr team is considered the clear favorite of this match, and you can bet on its victory with a coefficient of 1.10. The coefficient for a draw in this match is 11.00, and the bet on the victory of the underdogs from the Al-Wehda team will be accepted with a coefficient of 14.00. Download 1xbet to your phone and place a bet on the favorite!

Game Totals Prediction

Al-Nasr will play again in the optimal lineup, in which 99% there will be a place for Ronaldo, who has been starved for new goals this week. Considering this factor, as well as the extremely uncertain play of the Al-Wahda defense at other stadiums, we can count on a considerable number of effective strikes from the favorite. A bet on the individual total of Al-Nasr more than 3 goals exactly with the "return" option and odds of 1.71 looks optimal for this match.