Al Nassr survived the absence of the Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo, who served the first of the two games of suspension with which he was sanctioned after elbowing an opponent, by beating Al Feiha 3-1 this Friday with a double from Senegalese Sadio Mané.
A score that did not reflect the difficulties experienced by Portuguese Vitor Severino’s team, who reached the last twenty minutes of the game behind on the scoreboard, after seeing Zambian striker Fashion Sakala lead the visitors (0-1) in the sixth minute. . It could have been even worse for Al Nassr, who in the 69th minute was saved from conceding the second goal in an action in which Nigerian Anthony Nwakaeme crashed the ball into the post.
But the main problem for the locals was not the dangerous counterattack by Al Feiha, but the inability of the Al Nassr players to overcome the visiting goalkeeper, the Serbian Vladimir Stojkovic, who became a real wall. At 40 years old, Stojkovic, a former goalkeeper for, among others, Partizan Belgrade and Getafe, showed that he still has his reflexes intact with more than creditable saves from Sadio Mané or the Spanish center back Aymeric Laporte.
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Sadio Mane, Otavio y GhareebStringerREUTERS
Not even with a penalty did Al Nassr manage to beat the Balkan goalkeeper who saw how with three minutes left before half-time Mane sent a maximum penalty over the crossbar. But not even the good work of Vladimir Stojkovic who continued adding worthwhile interventions in the second half of the local team, who after tying the match (1-1) in the 72nd minute with a header from Abdulelah Al Amri at the start of a corners, definitively ended Al Feiha’s resistance with a double from Sadio Mané.
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