Al-Hilal embarrass Al-Nassr to deny Ronaldo first trophy in Saudi

Al Nassr continued to trail Al-Hilal as they recently suffered a 4-1 thumping to the Blue Waves in the Saudi Super Cup final. 

The Faris Najd were abysmal in pre-season, failing to win any of their seven exhibition matches. They returned to competitive football three days ago when they beat Al-Taawoun in the semi-final of the Saudi Super Cup. 

The final against Al-Hilal was billed to be an indicator of how both teams will fare this season, and the defending champions ensured to display the gulf that exists still between them and Luis Castro’s side.

The game was headed for a scoreless but intensely competitive first-half before Cristiano Ronaldo broke the deadlock with his 44th-minute strike. The Portuguese was set up by Abdulrahman Ghareeb, and he finished with aplomb. 

Al-Nassr went into the break ahead but could not manage to inspire themselves to pile on in the second-half; instead, it seemed all the goal did was poke the bear. 

Al-Hilal were ruthless and dominant in the second-half, and it all began with a Sergej Millinkovic Savic goal ten minutes after resumption. Top striker Aleksandar Mitrovic put Jorge Jesus' side ahead in the 63rd minute, heading in a Ruben Neves delivery. 

The Serbian doubled his tally and his side's lead in the 69th minute before Malcolm closed off the scoring three minutes later. Al-Hilal triumphed over their big rivals again, as they strolled to Super Cup victory.