TAIF — Cristiano Ronaldo's Al-Nassr thrashed the Tunisian club Union Sportive Monastir 4-1 in their second Group C match of the King Salman Cup for Arab Clubs on Tuesday. Ronaldo scored his first goal of the season with a clinical header in the 74th minute, scoring his 145th headed goal, the highest-ever in football, surpassing Gerd Muller's previous tally of 144 goals. Ronaldo scored his first goal in the new season, dedicating it immediately to his compatriot new coach, Luis Castro, who was most delighted with the return of the Portuguese star to score. This was also Al-Nassr's first win in the tournament this season, following a goalless draw with Al-Shabab in the previous match. In the 42nd minute, the Brazilian striker Anderson Talisca opened the scoring for Al-Nassr. However, an error by Al Nassr's defender Ali Lajami, trying to clear the ball, saw him head it into his own net to make it all square, in the 66th minute. Al-Nassr, however, came storming back with three goals in the closing stages of the game. Ronaldo stepped up, scoring his 839th career goal as the stadium erupted with his record-breaking strike. The game's tempo shifted entirely to Al Nassr's side after it, with Abdulelah Al-Amri and Abdulaziz Saud Al-Elewai scoring two goals in 88th and 90th minutes of the match. Anderson Talisca scored the first goal for Al-Nassr three minutes before the end of the first half, following a cross pass from inside the penalty area. But Lagami scored the equalizer for Monastiri by mistake, with a header that strangely hit his team's net, before Ronaldo appeared on the scene, and gave Al-Nassr the lead in the 74th minute, following a cross pass from the right, to be settled in the net with a wonderful header. Defender Al-Amri scored the third goal after a follow-up to a header from Ronaldo, which hit the net with a powerful shot. Al-Elewai was able to consolidate the result by scoring the fourth goal for Al-Nassr in the last minute of the original time of the match, taking advantage of a wonderful pass from Talisca to hit the net. Al-Nassr now lead Group C as the victory raised its points to four from two matches after its draw with Al-Shabab, who in turn defeated Egyptian Zamalek 1-0 while Zamalek has three points with third place in the group. Al-Nassr will next face Zamalek on Thursday and it needs only a draw to advance to the quarterfinals while Monastir slumped to the bottom of the table and is the only team in its group without a single point. In another match, the defending champions Moroccan Raja CA advanced to quarterfinals after defeating its Kuwaiti opponent 2-0 in the Group D match. Raja, raised its score to six points at the top of the group, accompanied by Al-Wehda, to advance together to the quarter-finals. On the other hand, Kuwait left the championship in the group stage without any points, accompanied by the Algerian Chabab Belouizdad, who lost to the Emirati team 2-1.
