Cristiano Ronaldo returned from suspension and could not prevent Al-Nassr losing to Al-Ain 1-0 in the first leg of their Asian Champions League quarterfinal on Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A first-half goal from Moroccan forward Soufiane Rahimi was enough for one-time champion Al-Ain to have the advantage in the return leg in Riyadh next Monday.<\/p>\n
Ronaldo was fresh after missing a Saudi Pro League match on Thursday as punishment for making an alleged offensive gesture during the previous game against Al-Shabab.<\/p>\n
Video appeared to show Ronaldo cupping his ear and repeatedly thrusting his hand forward near his pelvis in a gesture that seemed to be aimed at Al-Shabab fans who were chanting the name of Lionel Messi, Ronaldo’s longstanding soccer rival.<\/p>\n
Al-Ain’s fans did the same but were almost silenced in the sixth minute when Ronaldo went close with an overhead kick. In the final moments, he attempted a lob from the halfway line that was just wide of the post. Another shot from close range was saved by Al-Ain goalkeeper Khalid Eisa.<\/p>\n
It could have been worse for Al-Nassr as Al-Ain, coached by former Argentine striker Hernan Crespo, had two goals disallowed for offside.<\/p>\n
The game ended with Al-Nassr down a man after Aymeric Laporte was sent off in stoppage time for violent conduct. The former Manchester City defender will miss the second leg.<\/p>\n
“We are only halfway through, and while going to the next round is going to be difficult, we still have 90 minutes at home,” Al-Nassr coach Luis Castro said.<\/p>\n
The winner of the tie is guaranteed a semifinal against Saudi opposition. Al-Ittihad and Al-Hilal meet on Tuesday in the second quarterfinal in the western zone \u2014 the tournament is divided into two geographic halves until the final.<\/p>\n
Reporting by The Associated Press.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cristiano Ronaldo returned from suspension and could not prevent Al-Nassr losing to Al-Ain 1-0 in the first leg of their Asian Champions League quarterfinal on Monday.\u00a0 A first-half goal from Moroccan forward Soufiane Rahimi was enough for one-time champion Al-Ain to have the advantage in the return leg in Riyadh next Monday. Ronaldo was fresh […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}