Al Nassr vs Al Taawoun score, result as Cristiano Ronaldo's team loses 2nd straight match to start Saudi Pro League

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Simon Borg
• 18 min read
Cristiano Ronaldo hands on head Al Nassr vs Al Taaawoun August 18, 2023
(Getty Images)

Big spending Al Nassr have dug themselves an early hole to start their Saudi Pro League season after a stunning 2-0 home loss to Al Taawoun on Friday with star players Cristiano Ronaldo, Sadio Mane, Anderson Talisca, and Marcelo Brozovic all held scoreless.

A wide-open corner kick header from Cameroonian forward Leandre Tawamba in the 20th minute set the visitors on their way, and Al Taawoun's five-man backline and sure-handed goalkeeper frustrated Ronaldo and Al Nassr all night, with substitute Ahmed Bahusayn sealing the result deep in stoppage time.

Al Nassr's 2-1 loss on the opening weekend to Steven Gerrard's Al Ettifaq was attributed to the fact that many of their star players were given a rest after winning the Arab Club Champions Cup 48 hours before. But they were all back on the field and still came up short against an Al Taawoun side that executed a perfect game plan of defending in numbers and counter-attacking through speedy Brazilian winger Mateus.

Al Nassr struggled to find a flow to their attack, outshooting Al Taawoun 24-8, but only getting five shots on target compared to the visitors' six.

Anderson Talisca missed on a couple of headers in the box, Sadio Mane had a goal disallowed, there was a late goal-line clearance, Cristiano Ronaldo slammed a ball against the post from an offside position, and Marcelo Brozovic fired right at the 'keeper on a frustrating night for the home team.

Al Nassr finished in second place, coming up five points short in their quest for the Saudi title in 2022/23 and now could find themselves six points behind the leaders by the time Matchday 2 is complete. 

MORE: Ranking the best players in the Saudi Pro League

Al Nassr vs Al Taawoun final score

  Final Goal scorers
Al Nassr 0  
Al Taawoun 2 Leandre Tawamba (Mateus) 20'
Ahmed Bahusayn (Sattam Al Roqi) 96'

Lineups:

Al Nassr (4-3-3, right to left): 33. Waleed (GK) — 2. Al Ghannam, 78. Lajami (4. Al Fatil 47'), 5.  Al Amri, 13. Konan — 6.  Fofana (8. Alsulaiheem 76'), 77. Brozovic, 17. Alkhaibari (29. Ghareeb 34') — 94. Talisca, 7.  Ronaldo, 10. Mane.

Al Taawoun (5-3-2, right to left): 1. Mailson (GK) — 15. Abdulmalik (6. M. Al Ghamdi 62'), 4. Girotto, 42. Muath (31. Balobaid 74'), 14. Kadesh, 23. Waleed — 24. Flavio (29. Bahusayn 88'), 18. El Mahdioui, 10. Medran (8. Al Nasser 74') — 16. Mateus, 3. Tawamba (7. Al Roqi 88')

MORE: Updated Saudi Pro League top scorers in 2023/24

Al Nassr vs Al Taawoun live updates, highlights, and commentary

Final: Al Nassr 0-2 Al Taawoun

Final: It's a deserved result for Al Taawoun, who frustrated Al Nassr by defending deep, closing spaces, and clogging the penalty area.

Ronaldo takes out his frustrations at the referee at the end of the match as he walked off the pitch.

96th min.: Goal Al Taawoun! It's the two subs combining for the goal. Mateus fed Al Roqi and he cuts it back to Bahusayn for the finish. And the Al Nassr defender on the line can't stop it.

95th min.: Al Nassr goal disallowed! Sadio Mane scores a beautiful curler, but he was offside earlier in the play.

95th min.: Chance Al Nassr! It's Anderson Talisca going up for the header, but he can't put the ball on target.

90th min.: Nine minutes of stoppage time.

89th min.: Ronaldo hits the post! But he was offside anyway. Time is running out for Al Nassr.

84th min.: Chances Al Nassr! First one shot was cleared off the line by Taawoun's Girotto. And then there was an Anderson Talisca header that just missed the target. The frustrations grow for Al Nassr.

79th min.: Referee controversy! First, Al Nassr were incorrectly denied a corner kick (replays show a clear headed deflection). Then Ghareeb goes down in the Al Taawoun box on a clumsy tackle from Al Ghamdi, and he wants a penalty. But the referee won't be doing anything about that one either.

And Ronaldo is angry at the referee:

76th min.: SUB Al Nassr. Seko Fofana is out of the game with Alsulaiheem in for him. Fofana wasn't influential in this game.

74th min.: SUBS Al Taawoun, as playmaker Alvaro Medran coming off.

72nd min.: Corners and crosses are not bothering Al Taawoun. Either the cross has been off the mark, or Mailson has nabbed it comfortably. Al Nassr don't have clear ideas.

64th min.: Chance Al Nasssr. It's Marcelo Brozovic with a free left-footed shot from outside the box, but he can't trouble Al Taawoun's 'keeper, who stops it.

63rd min.: Ronaldo chance, but he's offside. The assistant referee let the play unfold and later raised the flag. Ronaldo is upset that he did, although those are the rules. It feels like Ronaldo realizes he doesn't have any energy to waste here.

55th min.: Chance Al Nassr! It's a header by Anderson Talisca, but Al Taawoun survive with a great save from the excellent Brazilian goalkeeper Mailson.

54th min.: YELLOW card to Al Nassr's Talisca for an alleged dive outside the box to try to win his team a free-kick. But that's the wrong decision by the referee. Replays showed Flavio pushed him from behind.

49th min.: Chance Al Nassr! Chance Ronaldo! The ball reaches him at the top of the box in a central position and he spins and shoots, but he doesn't trouble Al Taawoun's Brazilian 'keeper.

48th min.: Chance Al Taawoun! It's Mateus again wreaking havoc. They finally move him to the left side and his rips a shot with his favoured left foot and forces Waleed into a one-handed save. Mateus has been a hand full in this game.

46th min.: Al Taawoun kick off. And Al Nassr come out with some urgency, winning. corner kick which Ronaldo heads off target from favourable range.

Halftime: Al Nassr 0-1 Al Taawoun

Halftime: It's been a really poor first half from Al Nassr with no meaningful attacks to speak of. They look like a tired team that already have seven matches in their legs in a short period of time. It's been lacklustre by Al Nassr with only two shots on target, compared to Al Taawoun's three.

Ronaldo is too far away from goal, Anderson Talisca is not involved, and Seko Fofana has tried from distance to no avail. Plus Sadio Mane has lost possession a third of the time (11 of 33 touches), according to SofaScore. Maybe that's why they're trying to acquire attacking midfielder Otavio from Porto.

Regardless, Cristiano Ronaldo didn't appreciate that the penalty kick decision was overturned. That's a sign as to just how desperate Al Nassr are for any break, because nothing is working so far.

53rd min.: Penalty for Al Nassr! Seko Fofana is brought down in the box and the referee points to the spot. But the referee is going to look at it on the monitor.

And the referee overturns the decision! The referee sees the replay and feels that left wingback Waleed Al Ahmed got to the ball cleanly and beat Seko Fofana to it.

It's the right call. It was a 50-50 ball and Waleed Al Ahmed got to it first.

51st min.: YELLOW card to Al Taawoun's right wingback Aloyayari Abdulmalik.

47th min.: SUB Al Nassr. Disaster for the home team as they have to burn another substitution with Al Fatil coming in for the injured Lajami. That's two subs in two separate windows in the first half. Only halftime and there's just one window left in the second half.

45th min.: Eight minutes of stoppage time after the hydration break. Meanwhile, centre-back Ali Lajami needs to be helped off the pitch with a right foot injury. He's asking for a sub.

34th min.: Chance Al Taawoun. It's once again Mateus on the break, but it's not helping him on these breakaways that he's left-footed and playing wide right. If the counter is what you're after, either he starts cutting inside, or he should switch flanks.

34th min.: SUB Al Nassr. It's the speedy winger Ghareeb who comes in for holding midfielder Alkhaibari, who was on a yellow card. Aggressive change by Al Nassr coach Luis Castro.

Al Nassr are in a 4-2-3-1 with Seko Fofana and Marcelo Brozovic holding, and Anderson Talisca in the attacking midfield position with Ghareeb wide left and Mane wide right.

32nd min.: Al Taawoun are defending calmly and their Brazilian goalkeeper Mailson has been sure-handed on corners and crosses. Meanwhile, there's been no real reaction from Al Nassr. They don't look like they have much energy, and Ghareeb is getting ready to come off the bench.

30th min.: Big tifo by the home Al Nassr fans. It reads "Danger!" but the home team is not really getting the message thus far. They haven't created much.

22nd min.: YELLOW card to Al Nassr's Al Khaibari with a reckless tackle on the goal scorer, Cameroonian forward Tawamba.

20th min.: Goal Al Taawoun! It's an easy corner kick header inside the six-yard box by Al Taawoun forward Leandre Tawamba, who was totally unmarked. Not just that, a wide-open teammate was right there with him. No one on Al Nassr was marking!

It must be said, it was a fantastic delivery by Mateus on the corner.

16th min.: Al Nassr's attacking quality slowly coming through, with a lot of the action going through Sadio Mane on the left flank. But when Al Taawoun go on the break, they've been dangerous. The visitors do have quality attacking players who can create danger.

8th min.: Chance Al Nassr! It's Ronaldo from outside the box, and he measures his shot to bounce in front of Al Taawoun's Brazilian 'keeper, who swats it away.

Cristiano Ronaldo sat centre-back Hassan Kadesh down.

6th min.: Chance Al Taawoun! It's Mateus once more down the right flank, but he can't gather himself at the end line and the chance is lost. The Al Nassr offside trap has struggled here.

3rd min.: Chance Al Taawoun! It's Brazilian right winger Mateus running onto a ball over the top and he tries to poke it past Al Nassr goalkeeper Waleed Abdullah, who comes up with the stop, while taking a knock in the process.

1st min.: We're off. Al Nassr in the yellow and blue, and the visiting Wolves of Al Taawoun are in black.

Kickoff

5 minutes prior to kickoff: Teams are on the field. Kickoff is near.

15 minutes prior to kickoff: The Alawwal Stadium looks like it's filling slowly ...

But that's because there are long lines outside the building for Ronaldo's 2023/24 league debut.

45 minutes prior to kickoff: Players are out for warmups.

1 hour prior to kickoff: Lineups are out.

1 hour, 10 minutes prior to kickoff: Bodies are flying all over the screen as fans try to jump as high as Cristiano Ronaldo does on his headers. That's a clever execution by the Al Nassr matchday staff at Al Awwal Park.

1 hour, 15 minutes prior to kickoff: Breaking news that Al Nassr left-back Alex Telles is not in the matchday squad due to injury. Expect veteran Ivorian fullback Ghislain Konan to take over duties. Konan was the regular starter at the position last season.

1 hour, 30 minutes prior to kickoff: Cristiano Ronaldo is in the house. Expect his name to be listed in the Al Nassr starting lineup coming up in 30 minutes.

1 hour, 40 minutes prior to kickoff: The last time that Al Nassr welcomed Al Taawoun on Feb. 17 (2022/23 season), it was a magisterial assist from Cristiano Ronaldo that opened up the scoring. Ronaldo didn't find the net on this day, but he assisted both goals in a 2-1 home win.

1 hour, 50 minutes prior to kickoff: It's an Al Nassr hype video. This team is dreaming of trophies in 2023/24. In addition to their 2023 Arab Club Champions Cup triumph (the silverware in the video from August 12), Ronaldo & Co. are busy on four other competitive fronts:

  • Saudi Pro League
  • King Cup
  • Saudi Super Cup
  • Asian Champions League

2 hours prior to kickoff: Al Nassr might not be done building their super team with a report that they're ready to pay the €60 million release clause for 28-year-old Porto creative midfielder Otavio.

Al Nassr vs Al Taawoun lineups

Al Nassr lost their opening match to an Al Ettifaq side captained by Jordan Henderson, but they didn't have the first-choice lineup except for Sadio Mane, who struck early in that match. Except for the injured Alex Telles, manager Luis Castro rolls out his best starting XI though it's a surprise to see backup goalkeeper Waleed Abdullah in goal in place of the regular Nawaf Al Aqidi, who's on the bench.

Al Nassr starting lineup (4-3-3, right to left): 33. Waleed Abudllah (GK) — 2. Sultan Al Ghannam, 78. Ali Lajami, 5. Abdulelah Al Amri, 13. Ghislain Konan — 6. Seko Fofana, 77. Marcelo Brozovic, 17. Abdullah Alkhaibari — 94. Anderson Talisca, 7. Cristiano Ronaldo, 10. Sadio Mane.

Al Nassr subs (9): 44. Nawaf Al Aqidi (GK), 12. Nawaf Al Boushal, 4. Mohammed Al Fatil, 24. Mohammed Qassem, 19. Ali Alhassan, 8. Abdulmajeed Alsulaihem, 11. Khalid Al Ghannam, 30. Meshari Al Nemer, 29. Abdulrahman Ghareeb.

Al Taawoun had a different type of transfer window than Al Nassr, bringing in a Brazilian trio: centre-back Andrei Girotto on a small fee from French club FC Nantes, midfielder Flavio on loan from Trabzonspor, and winger Mateus from Japanese club Nagoya Grampus, alongside some players offloaded by giants Al Ittihad and Al Hilal. All three Brazilians start together with former Real Madrid reserve player Alvaro Medran.

Al Taawoun starting lineup (5-3-2, right to left): 1. Mailson (GK) — 15. Aloyayari Abdulmalik, 4. Andrei Girotto, 42. Muath Muath, 14. Hassan Kadesh, 23. Waleed Al-Ahmed — 24. Flavio, 18. Ashraf El Mahdioui, 10. Alvaro Medran — 16. Mateus, 3. Leandre Tawamba

Al Taawoun subs (9): 36. Raghid Najjar (GK), 11. Fahad Al Abdulrazzaq, 31. Saad Yaslam Balobaid, 9. Abdulmalek Al Shammary, 6. Mohamed Al Ghamdi, 93. Awn Al Saluli, 7. Sattam Al Roqi, 8. Saad Al Nasser, 29. Ahmed Bahusayn.

Al Nassr vs Al Taawoun live stream, TV channel

This Saudi Pro League match at King Saud University kicks off on Friday, August 18 at 9 p.m. local time in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Here's how that time translates across some of the major territories:

MORE: How to watch Saudi Pro League in USA | How to watch in UK

  Date Kickoff time TV channel Streaming
USA Fri, Aug. 18 2 p.m. ET FS2, Fox Deportes Fubo, Fox Sports GO
Canada Fri, Aug. 18 2 p.m. ET  — DAZN
UK Fri, Aug. 18 7 p.m. BST  — DAZN
Australia Sat, Aug. 19 4 a.m. AEST  — 10 Play
India Fri, Aug. 18 11:30 p.m. IST Sony TEN 2 Sony LIV, JioTV
Hong Kong Sat, Aug. 19 2 a.m. HKT SPOTV SPOTV
Malaysia Sat, Aug. 19 2 a.m. MYT SPOTV SPOTV
Singapore Sat, Aug. 19 2 a.m. SGT SPOTV SPOTV
New Zealand Sat, Aug. 19 6 a.m. NZST  — Shahid

Al Nassr vs Al Taawoun odds

Al Nassr are the favoured team in what the odds say will be a high-scoring game, with the betting market leaning toward the over 2.5 total goals.

The spread (handicap) is also set at +/-1.5 (instead of the tighter +/- 0.5) as a sign of just how powerful this Al Nassr attack is expected to be with all the starters returning.

  Al Nassr
win		 Draw Al Taawoun
win		 Both teams
to score Y / N		 Over / Under
2.5 goals		 NAS
-1.5		 TAA
+1.5
Sports
Interaction
(Canada)		 1.25 5.01 8.41 — 1.57 / 2.26 1.80 1.95
Dafabet
(India)		 1.27 5.40 9.20 2.05 / 1.75 1.75 / 2.12 1.89 1.99
Top Betting Sites
(UK)		 1/4 4/1 15/2 20/21, 3/4 4/7, 13/10 — —
Author(s)
Author Photo
Simon Borg
Simon Borg is a senior editor for football/soccer at The Sporting News.
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