“The Opportunities Cristiano Ronaldo Missed Are Normal”- Al Nassr Defends Club Captain Despite Poor Form In Front of Goal

Following a two-match suspension, Cristiano Ronaldo made his return to the pitch against Al Khaleej. However, it wasn’t the emphatic return CR7 would have hoped for. The Portuguese superstar missed 3 good chances to put Al Nassr in the lead. His erratic finishing looked set to extend Al Hilal’s lead at the top. However, centre-back Aymeric Laporte saved Ronaldo’s blushes with a winner in the 68th minute. Yet, Al Nassr’s assistant coach Vitor Severino isn’t worried about Ronaldo’s finishing and said such ‘things happen.‘

In his recent presser, Severino talked out Cristiano Ronaldo’s performance against Al Khaleej. The Portuguese coach said, “The opportunities that Cristiano missed are normal in football & these things happen.” While Al Nassr continues to back their captain, Ronaldo’s finishing this season has been far from his otherworldly standards.

A report in March showed that Cristiano Ronaldo has missed 20 chances this season! To put it into context, no player has missed more in the Saudi Pro League. CR7 is closely followed by Aleksander Mitrovic and Moussa Dembele with 19 and 15 missed chances respectively. However, the problem for Al Nassr has been that Ronaldo’s missed opportunities cost them big time in games.

This season Cristiano Ronaldo is the league’s top-scorer with 29 strikes from 26 games. He has also been more than happy to set things up for others as seen by his 10 assists. However, more often than not, when CR7 has a bad game, his teammates rarely step up. A recent example was the game against Al Raed. He hit the woodwork twice and had plenty of free headers. Yet Ronaldo’s inability to score led to Al Nassr being beaten by the 13-seeded team for 3-1. CR7 earned plenty of criticism, yet it was nothing compared to his performance against Al-Ain.

The Cristiano Ronaldo miss that sealed Al Nassr’s Champions League fate

Al Nassr had a cruel AFC Champions League exit after losing via penalties to Al Ain. It was a bitter blow to the Knights of Najd who looked like one of the favorites for the title. But, it was all Al Nassr’s doing in the end. The side had plenty of opportunities to seal the tie and Cristiano Ronaldo was himself guilty of missing easy chances. In fact, the 5 times Ballon d’Or winner had a horror miss from just 3 yards out!

Although he made amends with a penalty later on, this miss proved pivotal as the game ended 4-4 on aggregate. Slightly better finishing from Cristiano Ronaldo would have helped Al Nassr win. For Al Nassr, the mistakes mustn’t happen again. The side has a knockout tie against Al Khaleej in the King Cup semi. For this game, they would want a much more clinical performance from CR7. Otherwise, it could be curtains as far as their season is concerned.