Al Nassr Humiliated by Al Ain in Asian Champions League Elite
Cristiano Ronaldo walked off to a silence that said everything. Al Nassr’s first night in the new Asian Champions League Elite turned into a humiliation.
A 4-0 hammering by Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates marked Ronaldo’s heaviest defeat since joining the Saudi club and matched one of the low points of his late Manchester United days — that 4-0 loss at Brentford in August 2022.
This was every bit as brutal.
Rahimi brothers tear Al Nassr apart
Al Nassr, still chasing a first continental crown, were second best from the start. After 25 minutes, the breakthrough came and it was all too simple.
Houssine Rahimi drifted into space and punished the Saudi champions, firing Al Ain into a deserved lead. The Moroccan forward looked dangerous every time he received the ball, and Al Nassr never really worked him out.
The warning signs were there. They went unheeded.
Just after the hour, Houssine struck again. Another lapse, another ruthless finish, and suddenly Al Nassr were staring at a mountain. Two goals down, chasing shadows, with their defensive structure in pieces.
The punishment didn’t stop there.
With 18 minutes left, Soufiane Rahimi — Houssine’s brother — joined the party. He made it 3-0, tightening the grip on a stunned Al Nassr side that had no answer to Al Ain’s intensity and movement.
Soufiane then turned provider. Georgios Giakoumakis arrived to apply the final touch, lashing in the fourth to complete a statement win for the two-time Asian champions and a chastening night for their Saudi visitors.
Ronaldo denied as Postecoglou takes the blame
Ronaldo, 41 and still hunting milestone after milestone, went into the game chasing career goal No. 980. His moment seemed to arrive late on with a free kick in familiar territory.
He struck it cleanly. The net did not bulge.
Khalid Eisa read it, got across, and pushed the ball away, preserving both his clean sheet and Al Ain’s emphatic scoreline.
There was no hiding from the scale of the defeat. Al Nassr head coach Ange Postecoglou fronted up.
“The players gave everything they had, and I do not place any responsibility on them ... and the responsibility is my responsibility,” he said. “Al Nassr as a whole was poor.”
The numbers back up the concern. The Saudi Pro League champions now have just one win in their last four matches, and the optimism that surrounded their domestic dominance has been replaced by doubt on the continental stage.
Mixed fortunes for Saudi clubs
While Al Nassr collapsed, the wider Saudi contingent experienced a very different opening round.
Al Hilal, four-time winners of Asia’s top club competition, did what Al Nassr could not: they imposed themselves. A 2-1 victory over Qatar’s Al Gharafa steadied the Saudi flagbearers.
The game turned fiery. Both sides were reduced to 10 men, and the tension rose. Rúben Neves held his nerve from the spot late in the first half, converting a penalty to give Al Hilal control. Sergej Milinkovic-Savic then stepped up after the break, his second-half strike sealing the win and underlining Al Hilal’s status as a serious contender once again.
Elsewhere, the mood was more subdued.
Al Ahli were held to a 1-1 draw by Pakhtakor of Uzbekistan, unable to turn possession into three points. Al Ittihad suffered the same fate, drawing 1-1 with Qatar’s Al Shamal in a stop-start encounter that never quite caught fire for the Saudi giants.
Al Qadsiah, though, found a way to start on the front foot. They edged UAE’s Al Wasl 2-1, banking three important points and giving Saudi Arabia at least one bright note on a night dominated by Al Nassr’s collapse.
For Ronaldo and his teammates, the message is stark. Asia will not bow to reputation.
