Al-Nassr fans were left heartbroken and Cristiano Ronaldo in tears as their hope of lifting the Saudi King’s Cup was squashed after losing the final 5-4 to Al-Hilal in a penalty shootout on Friday.
The defeat leave a sour taste in the mouth of Al-Nassr, as the the lose now means that they finish the season without a trophy, after their opponents on the day had earlier claimed the league title.
Al-Hilal came into the with two trophies – the Roshn Saudi League and the Saudi Super Cup already secured and they were looking to add one more to end the season in grand style, doing so at the end of the night.
The sight of Ronaldo in tears and being comforted by staff members at full-time mirrored how much the Portuguese star wanted the trophy, as he hasn’t won a major trophy in Saudi Arabia after spending a season and a half there.
Aleksandar Mitrović’s early header had given Al-Hilal the advantage early on and their course seemed to have been made even easier after Al-Nassr goalkeeper David Ospina was red carded in the 56th minute.
Hard to see Cristiano Ronaldo like this 💔pic.twitter.com/qtVmotQTOg
— CentreGoals. (@centregoals) May 31, 2024
But they too were soon reduced to 10 men when Ali Al-Bulaihi was red carded in the 87th minute and Ayman Yahya equalized for Al-Nassr a minute later to force the game into extra time.
Another red card meant that Al-Hilal played most of extra time with two men down after Kalidou Koulibaly was sent off for accumulating two yellow cards, but the league champions refused to concede another goal and the final ended in a dramatic penalty shootout.
There, Ronaldo converted his penalty but could only watch on as Moroccan goalkeeper Yassine Bounou saved Al-Nassr’s last two penalties to give his team the victory.
The defeat came few days after Ronaldo became the all-time top scorer in a single Saudi Pro League season with 35 goals.
