RIYADH: Al-Raed manager Igor Jovicevic said that his side created “memories” by beating Al-Nassr 3-1 away from home in the Roshn Saudi League on Thursday night to record a famous victory.
The result left Al-Nassr nine points behind leaders Al-Hilal having played one more game.
Al-Raed shut out the league’s top goalscorer Cristiano Ronaldo and earned breathing space in the relegation battle thanks to goals from Karim El-Berkaoui, Mohamed Fouzair and Amir Sayoud.
Croatian Jovicevic, a Ukrainian Premier League title-winner with Shakhtar Donetsk last season, said that for some of his players the result at Al-Awwal Park was “of course” the biggest win of their careers.
“It’s a beautiful day for us. Both teams wanted to win from the first minute, and for the Roshn League this is very important,” he said. “I think I chose the right tactics. After analyzing what Al-Nassr do in attack, we closed all the spaces, half spaces and all corridors to progress. But a very good team always finds solutions and there were many crosses, and this was a big challenge — but I think the team worked very hard as a unit and gave a big performance for the supporters of Al-Raed. They deserved this victory. We now need to back this up with a victory against Al-Taawoun.”
El-Berkaoui side-footed Al-Raed into the lead but Ayman Yahya’s well-placed rebound after a Ronaldo volley struck the post sent the teams in level at half-time. Captain Fouzair fired home in the first minute of the second half after a clinical Al-Raed break, before Sayoud wrapped up the memorable victory three minutes from time with a left-footed drive high into the net.
Al-Raed goalkeeper Andre Moreira, previously with Atletico Madrid and Aston Villa, said: “For a team to come here and score three goals, it’s almost impossible to say we didn’t deserve the win. In the end, we were the best team. Of course, they had more of the ball and some big names, but we scored three goals and deserved it. The performance from everybody was amazing.”
On managing to keep compatriot Ronaldo off the scoresheet, Moreira added: “Everybody knows how competitive he is — he is always fighting to try and win and score goals. Today it was not possible.”
Second-placed Al-Nassr are next in Roshn Saudi League action at Al-Ahli on Friday, March 15. Al-Raed, now 13th in the 18-team table, five points above the relegation zone, host Al-Taawoun the day after.
