Cristiano Ronaldo opened the scoring and handed Stefano Pioli the win as the Saudi Arabian club beat Al Nassr 3-0 in his first game as coach on Friday.
The Italian, who led AC Milan to the Serie A title in 2022, was appointed on Wednesday to replace Luis Castro.
In the second half, Salem Al-Najdi and Anderson Talisca added to the scoreline. The defeat was the first of the season for Al Ettifaq, but the side coached by Steven Gerrard remained in third place. Al Nassr moved up to fourth.
Ivan Toney scored twice as the Jeddah club beat Damac 4-2 to keep Al Ahli in fifth place. Toney, signed from English Premier League club Brentford in August, set up the opener for Gabri Vega before scoring his first goal since moving to Saudi. Former Liverpool forward Roberto Firmino scored the second. Al Hilal and Al Ittihad are first and second in the standings and will face off on Saturday
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What happened?
The Portuguese talisman put the visitors ahead just after half an hour, while Salem-Al-Najdi and Talisca scored two more goals in the second half to help Al-Nassr secure a comfortable 3-0 win on Friday evening. In fact, Ronaldo could have got two goals only if he hadn’t been stopped by the wooden structure What Ronaldo said
The five-time Ballon d’Or winner shared a number of pictures from the match on Instagram after the win, along with the caption: “Great team effort! Big win tonight – this one’s for the fans! 💪💛💙”Big picture
Ronaldo and company looked completely different under new manager Stefano Pioli. There was more purpose and creativity in attack, which left Gerrard a frustrated man on the sidelines. Sadio Mane was the star of the show as he scored both goals in the second half with some excellent and precise passing. What next for Cristiano Ronaldo? Ronaldo looks unstoppable in the new season as he continues to inch closer to his 1,000th goal mark with this being his third in four league games. He will now take on Al-Hazem in the King’s Cup of Champions on Monday.
