For Cristiano Ronaldo, “goals are like ketchup, when they appear, it’s all at once”. The phrase said in 2010 is still relevant today. Today, the Portuguese player scored four goals in 41 minutes, in Al Nassr’s victory over Al Wahed (4-0) in the 16th round of the Saudi league.
It was the 11th time in his career that the national team captain has scored four goals in a match – the last one against Lithuania during Euro 2020 qualifying, on September 10, 2019. Three years and five months later, CR7 returned to the poker. At club level, he had not accomplished that feat in nearly five years, since March 18, 2018, in Real Madrid’s win over Girona (6-3), for the Spanish championship.
And was almost fifth… twice. The last attempt to score five goals in a match – he succeeded only twice in his career, in 2015, in the service of Real Madrid – happened in the last shot of the match and made the opponent’s goalkeeper shine. Hence that look of chronic dissatisfaction when he missed the chance to score the fifth goal of the match.
At the end of the game, the Portuguese signed the ball home, not without taking a picture with… the referee. He then confessed that he was “very happy that he helped the team, especially with poker” and that was why he was “very special”. And on social media he added: “Great feeling to have scored 4 goals and reached my 500th goal in competitions in a very solid win for the team.”
Ronaldo’s good performance was matched by the good performance of Rudi Garcia’s team that did not count on Ospina, Pity Martínez, Talisca and Álvaro González. Al Wehda still had two balls in the goalposts, one of them from Gerson Rodrigues, a Portugal international capped by Luxembourg, but it didn’t deter Ronaldo’s superb performance, leaving him 13th in the Championship and two points behind relegation . zone.
Al Nassr, on the other hand, moved into the lead of the Saudi championship, with 37 points, on par with Al Shabab, who have another meeting. Ronaldo will return to the field against Al Taawon on Friday (February 17).
Four goals in 41 minutes
After avoiding the team’s defeat in the previous round by scoring for the first time in official matches, with a penalty, in the draw with Al Fateh (2-2), CR7 needed 21 minutes to open the scoring and unlocking the match, in Makkah, with a left foot shot.
After a further 19 minutes, he scored again, this time with his right foot.
O hat trick came from the penalty spot in the 53rd minute.
And poker was the icing on the cake, showing that at 38 years old, Ronaldo still manages to weave between opponents and beat defenders in speed. True, he did not score on the first try, “allowing” a first save to Abdulqddus Atiah, but he did not fail to charge again and scored another goal in the 61st minute.
With these four goals, Cristiano Ronaldo reached 503 league goals in his career (since 2003), divided between Sporting (3), Manchester United (103), Real Madrid (311), Juventus (81) and Al Nassr (5), club where he now has more goals than matches (four).
The competition’s top scorer is Brazil’s Talisca, formerly of Benfica and teammate of Cristiano Ronaldo, with 13 goals, followed by compatriot striker Carlos Júnior, formerly of Santa Clara and current Al Shabab player, with 11.
Source: DN
