Featured Image Credit: SSC
Topics: Cristiano Ronaldo, Al Nassr, Saudi Pro League, Football, Sadio Mane
Ryan Smart
Topics: Cristiano Ronaldo, Al Nassr, Saudi Pro League, Football, Sadio Mane
Cristiano Ronaldo has scored two free-kicks inside just 10 minutes for Al Nassr in their Saudi Pro League clash against Abha.
Ronaldo entered the game as the leading goalscorer in Saudi's top flight this season, with 26 goals to his name.
The 39-year-old is four goals clear of Al Hilal's Aleksandar Mitrovic, as he looks to become the first player in football history to win a Golden Boot in four different domestic top divisions.
He has gone two steps closer to achieving that historic goal with an incredible free-kick brace in the first half an hour against Abha.
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For his first, from around 20 yards, Ronaldo fired a low free-kick underneath the wall that fizzed through the gloves of former AC Milan goalkeeper Ciprian Tatarusanu.
But while some might have questioned the goalkeeping for that goal, there was to be no argument about his second as, from 25 yards out, Ronaldo curled the ball straight into the top left corner of the net.
Former Liverpool star Sadio Mane then scored a third goal on 33 minutes - with Ronaldo providing the assist this time - as Al Nassr look to blow their opponents away before half-time at the Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Stadium.
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But if you thought Ronaldo was done with his two free-kicks, you'd be wrong - and his hat-trick was brought up with another goal of incredibly high quality.
He ran on to a through ball before spotting Tatarusanu off his line and lobbing the ball over his head to make it 4-0 to Al Nassr.
And it was then 5-0 a minute later, Ronaldo continuing his remarkable individual display with an assist for Abdulmajeed Al Sulaiheem to extend the lead further.
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While Abha are second-bottom of the 18-team division, they do possess a number of players with top level European experience, including Tatarusanu, former PSG and Sevilla midfielder Grzegorz Krychowiak and ex-Wolfsburg and Fenerbahce defender Marcel Tisserand.