https://arab.news/ceuph
- Talisca, Ronaldo and Brozovic on target as Al-Nassr bounce back from opening-day disappointment with 4-1 win over Al-Fayha
RIYADH: Al-Nassr claimed their first Saudi Pro League win of the season after beating Al-Fayha 4-1 at Al-Majmaa Sport City stadium on Tuesday night, while newly promoted Al-Qadsiah continued their perfect start to the season with a 1-0 win at Al-Raed to top the table ahead of the rest of Matchday 2 fixtures.
Having played out a disappointing 1-1 draw against Al-Raed on the opening weekend of the season, Al-Nassr were quick out of the blocks against Al-Fayha and took the lead after only five minutes through Talisca’s clinical left-footed shot after an intricate exchange with Cristiano Ronaldo on the edge of the penalty area.
Ronaldo himself doubled the lead 10 minutes into first half stoppage time with a perfectly placed free-kick to all but end the match as a contest.
With five minutes of the match remaining, Marcelo Brozovic gathered a clever reverse pass from Sadio Mane to make it 3-0 with a thunderous finish into the roof of the net.
There was still time for Fashion Sakala to pull one back for Al-Fayha a minute later and Talisca to get his second of the night in stoppage time with another outstanding free-kick finish.
Meanwhile, Aramco-owned Al-Qadsiah followed up their impressive SPL bow — when they defeated Al-Fateh 3-0 at home — with a hard-fought 1-0 victory that was secured by Turki Al-Ammar 11 minutes from time.
New signings Nacho Fernandez and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang both played as Al-Qadsiah made it a maximum of six points out of two matches this season, and topped the table ahead of the rest of the SPL second round of matches on Thursday and Friday.
In the first match of the day, Al-Fateh shocked Al-Ahli 1-0 at Prince Abdullah bin Jalawi Stadium to quickly dampen the optimism that the Jeddah club had built up after their opening-day 2-0 win over Al-Orobah.
Cape Verde forward Djaniny scored the only goal of the match in the 54th minute.