RIYADH:
Cristiano Ronaldo marked his return from a month-long injury layoff by scoring twice in the second half as Al Nassr maintained their winning run with a 5-2 victory over bottom side Al Najma in the Saudi Pro League on Friday.
The Portuguese forward, sidelined since February, had missed Al Nassr’s previous two league matches and was also ruled out of Portugal’s friendlies against Mexico and the United States last month.
Al Najma, who have won only once in 27 league games, took a surprise lead a minute before halftime through Rakan Al Tulayhi.
Al Nassr responded swiftly, with Abdullah Al Hamdan and Sadio Mane scoring in first-half stoppage time to turn the match around.
The visitors drew level two minutes after the restart when Felippe Cardoso struck, but Al Nassr regained control when Ronaldo converted a penalty in the 56th minute.
The 41-year-old added his second in the 73rd minute before Mane sealed the win with a stoppage-time strike.
Earlier on Friday, Al-Ittihad claimed a 1-0 win at home against Al-Hazem despite having Moussa Diaby sent off after 34 minutes. Having been denied a penalty by VAR in the 66th minute, the reigning SPL champions took the lead six minutes later through Abdulrahman Al-Obud. Al-Ittihad now sit sixth in the table with 45 points from 27 matches. Al-Hazem are in 10th place with 31 points from the same number of matches.
In the day’s other match, Al-Kholood drew 2-2 with Khaleej Club with two first-half goals from Guga (9 minutes) and Abdulaziz Al-Elewai (37), the visitors’ first equalizer coming from a Konstantinos Fortounis penalty spot on 18 minutes. Khaleej grabbed a point thanks to a second leveller from Giorgos Masouras in the 85th minute.
The result leaves Al-Kholood in 14th place and Khaleej in 10th.
Al Nassr’s 13th consecutive league victory kept them top of the standings on 70 points, six clear of second-placed Al Hilal, who play Al Taawoun on Saturday.
