Friday, September 22, 2023 – 4:57 p.m

Ahmad al-Boutli/Amin al-Dubali

By Ahmad Harbi

Friday, September 22, 2023 08:00 AM

Al-Nasr hosts a team led by its Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo The Al-Alami striker hosts Al-Ahly Jeddah this Friday evening in a thrilling, fiery Clasico in the seventh round of the Saudi Professional League, 2023-2024 season.

The King Saud University Stadium, Al Awal Park Stadium, will host the Saudi Football Clasico between Al-Nasr and Al-Ahly tonight at exactly nine o’clock Cairo time.

Al-Nasr are sixth with 12 points, while Al-Ahly are third with 15 points, one point behind Al-Hilal..

Both the teams enter the field with a desire to win and get three points.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s participation has been decided as he underwent a medical at the club’s headquarters before the start of training to ensure the safety of his ankle. star Riyad Mahrez and Senegal international Sadio Mane in Al-Ahly’s lineup..

The expected Al-Nasr formation against Al-Ahli according to coach Luis Castro is as follows:

Goalkeeper: Nawaf Al-Aqidi .

Defence: Alex Telles – Aymeric Laporte – Mohamed Al Fathil – Sultan Al-Ghanem .

Midfield: Marcelo Brosovic – Abdullah Al-Khaibari – Abdel-Rahman Gharib – Odavio – Sadio Mane .

Attack: Cristiano Ronaldo .

The expected formation of Al-Ahli Saudi Arabia against Al-Nasr is as follows:

Goalkeeper: Edouard Mendy .

Defensive line-up: Ejian Alioski – Merih Demiral – Roger Ibanez – Ali Majrashi .

Midfield: Frank Kessid – Mohamed Al-Majid – Alain Saint-Maximin – Capri Vega – Riyad Mahrez.

Attack: Roberto Firmino.

The Clasico clash between Al-Nasr and Al-Ahly will return after an absence last season in 2022-23. Al-Ahly were relegated to the Saudi First Division League before returning to the professional league this season in the League of Lights and Fame..

On Thursday, English side Liverpool defeated their Austrian hosts, LASK, to win the first round of the fifth group matches in the competition with a score of 3-1. Europe League For football.

A competition the Reds don’t want to take part in, especially after regaining their place among the leaders of the old continent, having participated in its most important competition, the Champions League, for the past six seasons, winning the title in 2019. For the first time since 2005 and the sixth time in its history, the lead was a surprise for the home team.

Lask scored in the 14th minute through Florian Flicker, who fired a powerful shot past Ireland goalkeeper Caomin Kelleher from outside the penalty area.

Red is the second half

Although Liverpool looked helpless in the first half, the mood was different in the second half, with the Reds equalizing in the fifty-sixth minute from a penalty kick awarded by the match referee and successfully converted by Uruguay’s Darwin Nunez.

Seven minutes later, Colombian Luis Diaz scored the first goal for the English club after converting a beautiful cross from Dutchman Rein Grabenberg (63).

Egypt star Mohamed Salah, a 74th-minute substitute, received a pass from Nunez inside the penalty area and dribbled past two defenders before slotting the ball between the legs of goalkeeper Tobias Lawal. Target (88).

In another game in the same group, French side Toulouse drew 1-1 with Belgium’s Union Saint-Jelois.

Tough win for Roma

Inside the Group Seven matches, last season’s runners-up of the competition, Italian Roma, bounced back with a valuable win away to Moldova.

Roma played with high morale following a huge win for Portuguese coach Jose Mourinho’s side with seven clean sheets, including Belgian Romelu Lukaku’s first in the league against Empoli on Sunday. capital club, so he returned and scored the winning goal in the 65th minute in his first continental match with his new club.

Lukaku (30), who is on loan from Chelsea, scored his 16th goal in his last 12 games in the continental competition, having made his scoring debut in November 2014 while defending the colors of English side Everton. , against Wolfsburg in Germany when he scored in a 2–0 win.

Roma, runners-up to Sevilla in the Spanish competition last season, went ahead thanks to friendly fire after Cameroonian Kabi Kiki turned the ball into his team’s goal (45+4), before Sheriff Draspol equalized through the Colombian early in the second half. Christian Dover (57).

In the same group, Czech Republic’s Slavia Prague defeated Switzerland’s Servette 2-0 with goals from Lukasz Mazobust (32) and Nigeria’s Eko Ogbo (59).

France 24/AFP