Saudi Gazette report
RIYADH — Portuguese football legend Cristiano Ronaldo’s first season in Saudi Arabia came to an end on Wednesday, as the star striker was absent in the last match of his club Al-Nassr in the Saudi Pro League tournament. Ronaldo picked up a muscle injury during Al-Nassr’s match with Ettifaq last Saturday.
Al-Nassr defeated Al-Fateh 3–0 in the match held in Riyadh, and thus finishing in second place in the league with 67 points. In the absence of Ronaldo, Anderson Talisca took center stage to score two goals while the third goal for Al-Nassr was from the boot of Mohammed Marwan. Talisca scored the first goal in the fifth minute, before adding the second goal in the 66th minute, while Marwan scored his goal in the 72nd minute.
Al-Hilal, who finished third in the league, defeated Al-Raed 3–2 in the last match of the tournament. With this defeat, Al-Raed finished the season in tenth place with 34 points. Al-Hilal scored two goals in the first half through Musab Al-Juwair in the 17th minute and Muhammad Al-Qahtani in the 36th minute, while Abdullah Atif added the third goal from a penalty kick in the 80th minute.
In the last minute of the second half, Rakan Al-Dosari scored the first goal for Al-Raed, while Pablo Santos scored the second goal in the fifth minute of injury time.
Al-Ittihad, emerged champions of the Saudi Pro League with 72 points, and it was followed by Al-Nassr with 67 points, then Al-Hilal with 59 points, and behind them Al-Shabab in fourth place with 56 points.
It is noteworthy that Al-Hilal dominated the Saudi Pro League championship in its last three seasons. It crowned as champions for the consecutive years of 2020, 2021 and 2022.
Al-Adalah relegated to the First Division League with 28 points after losing to its guest, Ettifaq 0-2 on Wednesday. Al-Adalah will be accompanied by the last-placed Al-Batin, whose relegation was confirmed in the previous rounds of the competition. In the rest of the last round of matches, Al-Feiha defeated Al-Wehda 1–0, Al-Shabab defeated Dhamac 4–1, and Al-Taawon defeated Al-Batin 3–1.