· 2 min readIn this Al Nassr vs Neftchi Fargona match, I analyse the key tactical moments, individual performances and turning points of the game.
After the humiliating 4-0 defeat to Al Ain in the opening round of the Asian Champions League, Al Nassr needed a response. And winning wasn’t enough: against a Neftchi Fargona side that, with all due respect, are several levels below them, they needed to put in a convincing performance and score plenty of goals.
The game kicked off an hour late due to security-related issues in Saudi Arabia, but once it finally got underway, Al Nassr immediately took control.
Neftchi set up in a 5-4-1, sat deep and handed possession to their opponents. By the 19th minute, Al Nassr already had 70% possession, but were still struggling to create danger. The final decisions weren’t coming off, and they lacked the pace to break down the defence. Mané even wasted a good opportunity in the 29th minute, setting Félix up to finish, but the Portuguese failed to make contact with the ball. They needed more.
In the 33rd minute, the goal finally came. Yahya received the ball on the right, Boushal made an inside run and played it into the box, where Ângelo found himself completely unmarked and fired into the top corner. A lovely goal, coming after a spell in which Al Nassr had started to grow into the game.
Nine minutes later, Ronaldo doubled the lead. Mané crossed, Yahya brought the ball down on his chest and the Portuguese, with his back to goal and very little space to work with, struck it powerfully towards the near post. A superb goal, the 981st of his career. Just 19 to go until the thousand, and Ronaldo once again showed how involved he remains, including in the build-up to attacks.
Neftchi even managed to score before half-time, but VAR ruled the goal out for offside. It’s a debatable decision, but the correct one: the player in an offside position restricted Simakan and interfered with play. At half-time, Al Nassr had eight shots to Neftchi’s two, with 29 touches in the opposition box compared to just two for Neftchi. Their dominance was clear.
But it took just one mistake to make what should have been a comfortable game complicated. In the 51st minute, Boushal tried to clear a long ball with a completely botched backside flick and ended up handing it straight to Odilov, who had come on at half-time and made no mistake. Suddenly, it was 2-1 and Neftchi believed they could snatch an equaliser. A team with such a gulf in quality cannot allow a game like this to remain in the balance because of such an avoidable error.
In the 66th minute, Neftchi were reduced to ten men after a dangerous challenge by Alibaev on Simakan. That was another reason for Al Nassr to put the game to bed, but Postecoglou was slow to make changes, and his management of the substitutions raised questions. Samu Costa came on, combined with Mané, and in the 77th minute, the low cross was deflected into his own net by Gofurov. That made it 3-1.
Boushal made a costly mistake, the team took far too many liberties, and Bento once again raised questions with an error late in the game. Against stronger opponents, these mistakes can prove costly. The win was a must; a comfortable performance should have been too.
Post-match
Al Nassr won, but this wasn’t the convincing performance that was required. Ângelo scored, Ronaldo found the net again, and Awad Aman put in another solid performance, earning himself further opportunities.
