Cristiano Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo bags stunning hat-trick as Al Nassr secure thumping 5-1 win over Al-Tai

Arnav Kholkar

Cristiano Ronaldo scored a stunning hat-trick for Al Nassr against Al-Tai in a dominant 5-1 win for the hosts at the Al-Awwal Stadium in the Saudi Pro League on March 30.

The Portuguese superstar scored his team’s third, fourth and fifth goals to secure an emphatic result.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s hat-trick as it happened

Al Nassr made a good start to the game and grabbed the first goal of the contest in the 20th minute as Otavio converted Abdulrahman Ghareeb’s pass to make it 1-0. However, Al-Tai hit back just two minutes later as Virgil Misidjan scored to level the contest.

The forward was sent-off shortly afterwards for a second bookable offence and the visitors were down to 10 men. Ghareeb grabbed Al Nassr’s second goal to ensure they led 2-1 at the break.

The second half is when Cristiano Ronaldo burst into life. The forward bagged his first goal of the night to make it 3-1 after a well-worked corner and an assist from Sadio Mane. Ronaldo showed great attacking instinct to latch onto a weak clearance from Al-Tai’s defence just three minutes later to make it 4-1 to Al Nassr.

The superstar’s third goal came in trademark fashion with a towering header at the far post following a pin-point cross by Abdulmajeed Al-Sulaiheem. Ronaldo scored with all his three shots on target, played five key passes and also won two duels in a well-rounded performance.

How things look for Al Nassr so far

The 5-1 win takes Al Nassr up to 59 points from their 25 games in the Saudi Pro League this season. However, they are still miles off Al Hilal, who are first with 71 points to their name. Al Nassr secured second place in the league last season as well, earning 67 points from their 30 games. With five left to play, they could match or even exceed that tally this time around.

Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo during Al Nassr’s AFC CL game against Al-Ain. (Getty Images)

They were knocked out of the AFC Champions League quarter-finals after a 3-1 defeat on penalties to Al-Ain, following a 4-4 aggregate tie after two legs. Al Nassr can realistically only win the Saudi Super Cup, where they will play Al Hilal in the semis, and the King Cup of Champions, where they face Al-Khaleej in the semis.

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