Cristiano Ronaldo’s show at Al Nassr: from dancing to celebrate his header to fury when the VAR disallowed his 900th goal

The Portuguese striker scored for Al Nassr against Al Raed

In their debut in the 2024/2025 season of the Saudi Professional League, Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al Nassr drew 1-1 at home against Al Raed and are still struggling after the tough setback they suffered in the Super Cup final against Al Hilal (1-4). The Portuguese had an intense match, with different emotions and ended up upset, despite having scored his team’s only goal.

CR7 opened the scoring in the 34th minute with a great header. The Portuguese forward rose and connected with an effective cross from Sadio Mané to score the 1-0. In addition to his classic celebration with the jump and turn showing his back to the stands and pointing to the number 7, Cristiano got excited with a dance step, waving his right arm.

In the 49th minute, French defender Aymeric Laporte was fouled inside the box, leading to Mohamed Fouzair’s equaliser. The defender escaped a red card and was only cautioned for the foul.

The 39-year-old, who has caused a stir on social media in the last few hours with the opening of his YouTube channel, had a relevant performance beyond the equaliser and not having achieved his long-awaited 900th goal at club level, as he had a goal disallowed in the 75th minute of play for being offside when he was making it 2-1.

The Portuguese striker scored Al Nassr’s 2-1 and reached his 900th goal, but the goal was disallowed for offside

The referee called offside at the request of the semi-automatic VAR, which marked a fine move by Ronaldo’s left shoulder in relation to the last defender. El Bicho had pushed the ball into the back of the net after a pass from the Croatian Marcelo Brozovic, but his shout of goal, dedicated to his fans, was choked.

When Al Nassr were looking for the win at the end of the match, an incident that generated more controversy occurred in the eighth minute of added time, when the entire home team claimed a penalty for a handball inside the area by the Al Raed defender. The referee responded to the call of the VAR, but considered that the player’s arm did not increase the volume after Mané’s cross and the match continued, despite the obvious annoyance of Cristiano and his teammates.

Al Nassr player protested after the referee did not award a penalty for his team at the end of the match

After their debut in the Saudi league, Al Nassr will return to play next Tuesday, August 27, away to Al Feiha and will be at home again on September 13 against Al Ahli Saudi.