Cristiano Ronaldo has been knocked out of the Saudi Cup in first season with Al-Nassr. On Monday evening, the Portuguese and his team were eliminated in the semi-finals by Al-Wehda: 0-1.
Ronaldo’s hunt for the Saudi cup ends
Al-Nassr has not been in good shape lately and lost the top match against Al-Hilal last week, 2-0. The team hoped to be able to respond to that loss on Monday, but just went down again. Jean-David Beauguel, who is best known for his time with Viktoria Plzeň and playing for RKC Waalwijk in the 2013/14 season, gave Al-Wehda the lead after more than twenty minutes.
There was still enough time for Al-Nassr to look for the equalizer. However, it didn’t work out and that caused frustration for Ronaldo, who grumbled a bit towards his own coaching staff after the whistle.
The home team faced ten men shortly after the break, after a foul on Ronaldo Abdullah Al Hafith resulted in his second yellow card, but Al-Nassr was unable to take advantage of it. Ronaldo came close to the equalizer a few times, for example with a header that was well caught and a shot on the crossbar, but there was no party for him.
Pepe sticks to it for another year at Porto at the age of forty
Shifting our attention to Ronaldo’s long time teammate Pepe who despite being forty years of age is still not finished playing football. The central defender has signed a new contract with FC Porto, which means that he will also be active next season.
Pepe is therefore facing his 24th season as a professional football player. The Portuguese is still an important link at FC Porto and recently proved to be in top shape. With a huge sprint of forty meters, he outran his opponent as if he were still in his youth. Pepe is now fixed until the end of next season.
“I am very nervous because this contract means a lot to me,” Pepe told club channels about his extension. “As a player and a person, I want to be honest. I am forty years old and I owe a lot to Porto. Don’t want to disappoint the president of the club and the people. I want to thank everyone for making me better every day as a person, but also as a father.”
In his two periods at FC Porto, he has won twelve prizes with that club, including four national titles. He returned to FC Porto at the beginning of 2019. After playing for Real Madrid for ten years and for Besiktas for a year and a half. In addition, Pepe is a 133-time international from Portugal.
