Ittihad move close to title after Ronaldo and Al-Nassr falter

JEDDAH: Just hours after Al-Nassr and Cristiano Ronaldo’s title challenge stumbled on Monday with a 1-1 draw at home to lowly Al-Khaleej, Al-Ittihad defeated Abha 4-0 to move five points clear with four games to go. The title race is not over yet but few would bet against the Roshn Saudi League trophy heading down to Jeddah with any confidence.

Playing first, Al-Nassr needed to win to go level on points and put pressure on the Tigers. It was, however, the latest in a series of uncertain performances that has cost them seven points over the last four games.

In front of their expectant home fans, the Yellows started brightly but found themselves behind in just the third minute. Fabio Martins has been in fine form of late and the Portuguese forward timed his run perfectly to latch on to a delightful reverse pass from Morato to slide his shot past Agustin Rossi.

The lead didn’t last long. Abdulrahman Ghareeb floated over a free-kick from the left and Alvaro Gonzalez rose at the near post to nod his header into the opposite corner.

Al-Nassr kept coming with a fierce shot from Luiz Gustavo that seemed destined for the top corner only to be well-saved by Marwan Al-Haidari who then got down well to keep out a low shot from Ronaldo.

The Saudi Arabian goalkeeper stayed busy and had to make a number of stops, most notably eight minutes before the break when he got down well to block a shot from Ghareeb who had broken free to latch on to a ball from deep.

It wasn’t the smoothest of first-half performances from Al-Nassr who struggled to get their star player in the game but the expectation was that something would happen in the second half.

The 38 year-old had the ball in the net just before the hour, stabbing in from close