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Fans have gone wild after Cristiano Ronaldo's assist to Marcelo Brozovic helped Al-Nassr seal a 4-2 win against Shabab Al-Ahli in the AFC Champions League playoff on Tuesday (August 22).
Coming off a disappointing 2-0 home defeat to Al-Taawoun in the Saudi Pro League, Al Nassr persisted with their attacking front-three of Ronaldo, Sadio Mane, and Talisca. The move seemed to pay immediate dividends, as Talisca opened the scoring for the SPL side after 11 minutes.
Shabab, though, hit back, restoring parity eight minutes later through Yahya Al-Ghassani, who scored again a minute into the second half to put the visitors in front. Al-Nassr rallied, leveling the scores two minutes from time through Sultan Al Ghannam.
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Talisca then scored in the fifth minute of stoppage time as Al-Nassr led again. Ronaldo's assist to Brozovic two minutes later confirmed the result as the SPL giants snapped a two-game losing streak in style. The Portuguese held off two defenders on the right side of the box before squaring to Brozovic, who made no mistake with a low finish.
One fan proclaimed Cristiano Ronaldo to be the 'best playmaker in the world', tweeting:
"Ronaldo What an Assist!!! Best Play-Maker in the World when he wants to be."
Here are some of the top Twitter reactions:
With the win, Al-Nassr qualified for the AFC Champions League group stage, which starts next month.
What's next for Cristiano Ronaldo and Al-Nassr?
Cristiano Ronaldo's Al-Nassr will next be in action at Al Fateh in the Saudi Pro League on Friday (August 25).
It's a short turnaround after their success in the AFC Champions League playoffs. Having lost their opening two league games, Al-Nassr have made a dreadful start to their league campaign.
A 2-1 defeat at Al-Ettifaq was followed by a 2-0 home defeat to Al-Taawoun as last year's runner-ups slumped to 15th in the 18-team league. Ronaldo drew a blank in his first league game of the season against Al-Taawoun.
Buoyed by their late heroics in the Champions League playoffs, Ronaldo and Co. will now look for their first league win of the season at Al Fateh to climb up the standings.
