Cristiano Ronaldo and Joao Felix led Al-Nassr to a 2-1 victory over Al-Ittihad in the Saudi Super Cup semi-finals despite a red card to Sadio Mane.
An end-to-end first half brought plenty of drama, starting in the opening minutes when Al-Nassr goalkeeper Bento presented Karim Benzema with a glorious opportunity. The stopper inexplicably passed the ball straight to the Frenchman on the edge of the penalty area and will have been relieved to see him drag a low shot wide of the post.
The action then switched to the other end and saw Al-Nassr take the lead through Mane. A cross from Marcelo Brozovic found the Senegal star with time and space in the box, and his turn and shot somehow managed to beat goalkeeper Hamed Al-Shanqiti, who will feel he should have done better after getting a hand to the ball.
Yet Al-Nassr’s lead lasted just six minutes as Al-Ittihad swiftly hit back through Steven Bergwijn. A nicely worked move down the left flank culminated with the ball being cut back to Bergwijn to fire a low shot past Bento to make it 1-1.
Jorge Jesus’s side then suffered more misery as Mane was sent off to leave Al-Nassr down to 10 men. The Senegal star was handed his marching orders on 25 minutes after challenging for the ball in the penalty area and stupidly stamping on Al-Shanqiti.
Despite being a man down, Al-Nassr went ahead on the hour when Cristiano Ronaldo and Joao Felix combined. Al-Nassr’s captain beat the offside trap after being sent through on goal and showed his unselfish side by rolling the ball across goal for Felix to tap into an empty net.
joao Felix then thought he’d sealed the game for Nassr after drilling home his second minutes later, but the goal was ruled out after Ronaldo was penalised for a trip on Fabinho.
Yet Al-Nassr still managed to comfortably hold on for an important win, putting Cristiano one step closer to winning his first title with the Saudi Pro League side this season.
