Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo is undergoing his first major test with Al-Nasr Saudi Arabia since his arrival last month when he faces Al-Ittihad tomorrow, Thursday, in the semi-finals of the Saudi Super Cup.
The confrontation between Al-Nasr and Al-Ittihad will take place at the King Fahd International Stadium in Riyadh at exactly 9 pm Saudi time.
Prior to this match, Al Hilal will play Al Faihaa in the second semi-final at the Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium in Riyadh at 18:00 Saudi time.
Al Hilal competed in the Super Bowl as league champion last season and Al Fayhaa as King’s Cup champion while Al Ittihad finished second in the league and Al Nasr was third in the league instead of cup winners. -up (Al-Hilal).
Al-Hilal holds three titles in the competition compared to Al-Nasr’s two and Al-Fateh, Al-Shabab and Al-Ahly.
The Saudi Super Cup system in past years consisted of a single match between the league and cup champions, but with the new system it follows in the footsteps of the Spanish Super Cup that Saudi Arabia recently hosted with four clubs and Barcelona crowned their title.
Al-Nasr and Al-Ittihad met this season in the local league and the match, which witnessed the exclusion of a player from each team, ended in a goalless draw, marking Al-Ittihad winning back and forth last season (3-1 and 3-0 ).
Both teams are having an outstanding season as they have only suffered one loss each, as has Al-Hilal.
Al Ittihad are currently third in the league, two points behind Al Nasr, after 14 games and have reached the quarter-finals of the King’s Cup.
As for Al Nasr, they are at the top of the league and have made it to the quarter-finals of the King’s Cup, so each team will do its best to settle in their favor, and each of them is suitable for this in light of the presence of a large number of outstanding elements in both commands.
In Al-Ittihad, the Moroccan scorer Abdel-Razzak Hamdalla, the Brazilian trio Romarinho da Silva, Igor Coronado, goalkeeper Marcelo Groe and the Egyptians Tarik Hamed and Ahmed Hegazy stand out.
While the victory includes the legendary Ronaldo, who will turn thirty-eight at the end of next week, the Brazilian Talisca, the league’s top scorer (12 goals), and his compatriot Luis Gustavo, as well as new Argentine goalkeeper Agustín Rossi, replaced the injured Colombians David Ospina, Abdullah Al-Omari and Abdul Rahman Gharib.
And Al-Nasr emerged victorious in Ronaldo’s first official match last Sunday against Al-Ettifaq with a single goal to keep him at the top of the Saudi league, a point behind his rival Al-Hilal, who played more than one match. .
Source: agencies
