Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo suffered his biggest defeat in the colors of Al-Nassr since joining them in early 2023, with the Saudi League champion falling to its host, Al-Ain, UAE, 4-0 (Tuesday) at the start of the Unified Group League competitions for the AFC Champions League for the Elite (West Region).
Al-Nasr and Ronaldo were hoping for a successful return to the main continental competition after they were content with competing in the AFC Champions League 2 last season, where they reached the final before losing to Gamba Osaka of Japan 0-1.
But Al Ain, which won the continental title in 2003 and 2004, shocked them (Tuesday) at the beginning of its return to the competition, which it missed last season, thanks to the brilliance of the Moroccan brothers Al Hussein and Sofiane Rahimi, as the first scored a brace and the second a goal.
Tuesday's defeat was the largest for the 41-year-old Portuguese in the colors of victory and the largest since his previous team, Manchester United, also lost 4-0 to Brentford in the league in August 2022.
The biggest loss for a five-time Ballon d'Or winner is five clean goals, and this happened on two occasions: with Manchester United against Liverpool on October 24, 2021 in the league, and with Real Madrid against rival Barcelona on November 29, 2010 in the Spanish League.
As for continental competitions, Tuesday’s defeat was the worst for the Portuguese, with a difference of one goal from the worst previous loss, which was 1-4 with Real Madrid against Borussia Dortmund in Germany on April 24, 2013, according to the specialized website “Transfermarkt”, while the largest defeat with his country’s national team was by a difference of 4 goals (twice against Brazil 2-6 in a friendly match in 2008 and against Germany 0-4 in the World Cup. 2014).
The second continental test for Al Ain, which is in second place in the local league on goal difference behind the leaders Al Jazira after 5 stages, will be on the 12th of next month at the Iraqi Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya stadium, which lost its opening match, while Al-Nasr, third in the Saudi league, two points behind the leaders Al-Hilal after 7 stages, will play at home with Uzbekistan’s Nevichy (3 points) on the same day.
Australian Ange Postecoglou, Al-Nasr coach, took full responsibility for the heavy loss to Al-Ain of the United Arab Emirates, 4-0, on Tuesday, at the start of the two teams’ journey in the AFC Elite Champions League, stressing that his players do not bear responsibility for the result.
According to the official website of the Asian Football Confederation, Postecoglou said: “I do not hold the players responsible for the result. “We are currently dealing with a busy schedule of matches, and this is a major factor affecting our performance.”
Al-Nasr coach added: “The criticism directed at the team and the technical staff after this result is justified. The coach bears responsibility when the result is like this, and we must now return to work and review our mistakes before the next matches.”
Postecoglou reiterated his defense of his players, saying: “The players gave everything they had, and I do not hold them responsible.”
For his part, Serbian Vladimir Ivic, Al Ain coach, considered the big victory an important morale boost for his team, especially since it was achieved against one of the teams nominated to compete for the title.
Ivic said: “It was very important that we start the tournament with a victory against one of the teams expected to compete for its title. We know what we can do, and the players did their job wonderfully until the end and they deserve to win.”
He added: “We sent a message to ourselves about what we can do, and this is the most important thing to me. We worked hard together for more than a year, and new players joined us this summer, and our goal is to develop and become better from one match to the next.”
He continued: “This matter is not easy, and we want to be ready for our next match and the next competition.”
Al Ain imposed control over the match from the beginning to the end, and Hussein Rahimi scored two goals, while his brother Sufyan Rahimi and the Greek Yorgos Yakoumakis added the other two goals, bringing the Emirati team out with a major victory 4-0.
