Ronaldo shone in Tuesday night’s 8-0 demolition of Abha. He opened the scoring in the 11th minute from a free kick, when he caught the opponent’s goalkeeper with a not very good shot on the ground at first glance. The second shot in the 21st minute was already spectacular.
Again from a penalty kick, but this time the five-time winner of the Golden Ball hit the near post perfectly. Goalkeeper Ciprian Tatarusanu, who used to wear the colors of Fiorentina or AC Milan, had no chance. Shortly before the end of the half, he tasted the Romanian goalie for the third time. This time he narrowly avoided an offside position and finished with an elegant lob.
Former Liverpool and Bayern winger Sadio Mané, among others, contributed to the big win, and the defense led by former Manchester City stopper Aymeric Laporte kept a clean sheet. Even a high win did not help al-Nasr in the fight for the title. The team of Ronaldo and co. trailing leaders al-Hilal by an almost unattainable 12 points with eight rounds to go.
On the contrary, the former forward of Real Madrid, Juventus and Manchester United conquers individual statistics. He already netted 29 goals in the season, seven more than Aleksandar Mitrovič from al-Hilal, who is second in the ranking. Ronaldo added 10 more assists, tied with Riyad Mahriz for the most in the entire league.
Ronaldo is thus apparently getting into excellent shape at the end of the season, which he will certainly want to maintain even for the upcoming Euro. The Portuguese will start it on June 18 in Leipzig with a duel with the Czech Republic. “For me, Portugal is actually one of the candidates for the overall triumph. He can win, but only if Ronaldo doesn’t play,” recently surprised France’s 1998 World Champion and 2000 European Champion Frank Leboeuf.
“You can’t deny Ronaldo anything he’s done for football just because he retired from football in Saudi Arabia. I want to thank him for taking this sport to another level, but everyone has to come to an end. He has every right to play in Saudi Arabia, although I’m not sure if he needed even more money,” outlined Leboeuf.
“I don’t have a problem with players who end their careers leaving to play in the lower leagues to earn more. Similar to Messi. They were both fantastic players but they decided not to play at the highest level anymore and we have to respect that. You can never take away from them what they have done for football. But I don’t think Portugal has a chance to win the whole Euro with Ronaldo in the lineup,” he added.
