Heartbroken Ronaldo: Tears Flow After Al-Nassr Loss

After his Al-Nassr club lost the King's Cup final against Al-Hilal on Friday, Cristiano Ronaldo sobbed as he left the field, capping a second consecutive Saudi Arabian season without winning any significant hardware.

After extra time in the Jeddah final, which ended in a 1-1 draw, Al-Hilal prevailed 5-4 in a penalty shootout. After joining Al-Nassr in December 2022, Ronaldo collapsed to the ground in desperation and received consolation from his teammates at King Abdullah Sports City.

Al-Nassr finished second in the Saudi Pro League, 14 points behind Al-Hilal, and the loss occurred just four days after the season concluded. When Ronaldo scored twice to set a new league record of 35 goals in a season, there was some solace.

This time, after a furious match that witnessed two goals and three red cards, there was no such consolation.

In seven minutes, Aleksandar Mitrovic gave Al-Hilal the lead with a header. The situation worsened for Al-Nassr early in the second half when former Arsenal and Napoli goalkeeper David Ospina was sent off for touching the ball outside the area.

Following an alleged headbutt on Sami Al-Najei, Ali Al-Bulaihi was sent off, reducing Al-Hilal to 10 men after 86 minutes.
After Chelsea summer signing Kalidou Koulibaly was given a second yellow card, Al-Hilal had another defender sent off in the ninetieth minute.

In extra time, no goals were scored, and a shootout was used to decide the winner. Both Alex Telles, the former Manchester United defender, and Ruben Neves failed to score on Hilal's opening effort for Al-Nassr.

Ronaldo scored his penalty attempt after previously hitting the bar with a fantastic overhead kick, but all he could do was watch as Bounou, the hero of Morocco's run to the 2022 World Cup quarterfinals, made two saves: one from Ali Al-Hassan and the other from Al-Nemer.