"Fake GOAT," "Wasted Money" - Al-Nassr fans left stunned as Cristiano Ronaldo gets 3.9 match rating in Al-Taawoun loss
Fans were left stunned on social media after Cristiano Ronaldo was given a 3.9/10 match rating by OneFootball in Al-Nassr's 2-0 home defeat against Al-Taawoun on Friday (August 18).
Cristiano Ronaldo and Co. recently won the Arab Club Champions Cup, edging out Al-Hilal 2-1 in the final. However, Al-Nassr have suffered a shock start to their 2023-24 Saudi Pro League campaign by suffering back-to-back losses.
Cristiano Ronaldo didn't feature in his side's 2-1 loss against Steven Gerrard's Al-Ettifaq on August 14. However, he returned to the starting XI against Al-Taawoun yesterday at the KSU Football Field.
Luis Castro named his strongest possible starting XI, with the likes of Sadio Mane, Marcelo Brozovic, Seko Fofana, and Cristiano Ronaldo making the cut. However, Al-Nassr were unable to probe the resilient Al-Taawoun defence.
Leandre Tawamba opened the scoring in the 20th minute. Ahmed Bahusayn doubled his side's lead in the 96th minute to seal a shock three points for the away team.
Cristiano Ronaldo didn't have the best of outings and largely failed to have much of an impact. The 38-year-old had a shot accuracy of just 67%, missed one big chance to score, won none of his aerial duels, and completed just 33% of his dribbles.
As a result, OneFootball harshly gave him a match rating of just 3.9.
Some fans trolled Ronaldo in the comments section of the post. Here are some comments:
"Spending all that money just to take a big L."
"Fake goat button."
"Wasted Money By Alnassr."
"Don't let that donkey Arab cup fool you. Penaldo statpadded teams with no logos. In the actual Saudi league penaldo has only one more open play goal than Messi does for Miami and Messi played 5 games penaldo 32. Penaldo also plays in the best team while the goat carrying the worst team in the league."
"Now that they gave him the friendly tournament for free he’s getting exposed by construction workers."
Other fans leapt to his defense:
"The media against Ronaldo"
"He did one bad match and now everyone starts hating."
"What's bro? , Cristiano played well overall"
"How’s that possible?? 3.9??"
"Why do you hate Ronaldo, beacuse its better then messi and you dont accept it?"
Al-Nassr are currently 15th in the standings with zero points. The Knights of Najd will be aiming to get back to winning ways against Shabab Al-Ahli in the AFC Champions League play-off on August 22.
Cristiano Ronaldo's Al-Nassr vs Al-Taawoun: Exploring the stats from Saudi Pro League clash
Cristiano Ronaldo's Al-Nassr suffered a shock 2-0 defeat against Al-Taawoun at home yesterday. Let's take a deeper look at the stats to see how both teams actually performed.
Luis Castro's men dominated possession with 61 percent of the ball, compared to Al-Taawoun's 39 percent. The former also completed 574 passes (with an accuracy of 88 percent), which was also superior to the opposition's 387 (81 percent accuracy).
Unsurprisingly, Al-Nassr also had a mammoth 24 shots, but they weren't prolific with their chances, as only five were on target. In contrast, Al-Taawoun only had eight shots in total, but six were on target. The away team made the most of their chances and were able to secure three important points on the night.