(MENAFN- The Peninsula) The Peninsula
Doha, Qatar: Al Nassr made it three from three in Group E in the AFC Champions League 2023-24 yesterday beating Al Duhail 4-3 in a thrilling affair at Al Awwal Park in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Goals from Anderson Talisca, Sadio Mane and a double from Cristiano Ronaldo was enough for Al Nassr to steer past Al Duhail.
Al Nassr's man in-form Anderson Talisca sent early warnings to the Qatari side inside three minutes with a menacing run from the right hand side. Caught off balance, his left footed strike was unable to trouble Salah Zakaria in goal.
The early dominance for the hosts continued as Talisca, Cristiano Ronaldo and Sadio Mane's interchanges in the final third caused problems for Al Duhail's defence.
Despite the early tempo set by Al Nassr, the visitors began to settle. Ismaeel Mohammed and Michael Olunga's pace was causing issues with long balls over the top of Al Nassr's backline. Philippe Coutinho was also finding opportunities to dance around the full-backs.
However, stopping Talisca is no easy task at the moment and it was the former Guangzhou forward who opened the scoring. Ronaldo's clever flick found his teammate on the edge of the box who swiped home his effort into the opposing corner. This was his ninth goal in his last seven matches.
Despite the setback, Al Duhail continued to create chances. Kim Moon-hwan found himself played in after some intricate passing but the 23-year-old made himself big and prevented the equaliser.
Al Duhail started the second half brightly with Coutinho hitting the post but were soon two goals behind as Mane was able to bring the ball down inside the box before guiding it into the bottom corner to double Al Nassr's lead. Not to be left out of the action, Ronaldo made it three with a sublime strike from distance. Cutting inside onto his left, the Portuguese forward found the top corner with a ferocious strike from 20 yards.
However, Al Duhail didn't give up. A cross from Olunga on the left found Mohammad, whose towering header instantly cut the deficit back to two.
Moments later, Almoez Ali was on the scoresheet as his deflected shot found the back of the net and made for an entertaining final 20 minutes.
Olunga netted one with a curling effort inside the box with 85 minutes on the clock. In the end, despite pushing and probing in the final minutes, time did eventually run out for Al Duhail and it was Al Nassr who came away with all three points.
Next up, these two sides will go to battle once again on November 7 in Qatar. (AFC)
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