Al Nassr did not need captain Cristiano Ronaldo as they hammered Ohod 5-1 on their King Cup Round of 32 trip to Jeddah on Monday night.
Luis Castro opted to leave Ronaldo back in Riyadh, with the Portuguese international focused on the Saudi Pro League clash with Al Ta’ee on September 29, and the visitors stormed into the next phase. Ohod, who play in the second tier of the Saudi Arabian football pyramid, had pegged back their opponents in the first half, but the second proved too much for them as the Pro League side ran riot.
It was Sadio Mane who opened the scoring in the game, with Seko Fofana, Talisca, Ayman Yahya, and Sami Al-Najei also netting for the side. Mane had almost scored in the opening 10 minutes of the match after latching onto Talisca’s flick, but had the opportunity to strike from the sport when Abdulrahman Ghareeb was tripped by Abdulrahman Al-Khaibari. The former Liverpool man made no mistake and fired low into the bottom left in the 16th minute to give his side a deserved lead and continue his fine start to life in the Middle East.
Read Also: Ronaldo scores twice, Mane with assist as Al Nassr triumph
The lead didn’t last too long, however, with Konrad Michalak latching onto a long ball to lift an effort over Nawaf Alaqidi and level things up, triggering jubilant celebrations from the hosts. In the second half, however, AL-Nassri ran riot with Fofana making it 2-1 just after the hour mark with a fine strike from outside the area.
Talisca’s header then put the game to bed, before Yahya and Sami Al-Najei finished off the scoring to secure their side’s sport in the next round of the competition they reached the semi-finals of last year.