Cristiano Ronaldo provides clear response when asked who he wants to dedicate his goals against Al-Gharafa to as he guides Al-Nassr to win

Cristiano Ronaldo has dedicated his goals against Al-Gharafa in their AFC Champions League clash to the Al-Nassr fans, the club, and his teammates. The Portuguese legend scored a brace on Monday, November 25, at the Al Bayt Stadium.

After a goalless first half, Ronaldo broke the deadlock with a towering header from inside the 18-yard-box in the 46th minute. Former Chelsea forward Angelo doubled Al-Nassr's advantage in the 58th minute before Ronaldo scored another in the 64th minute to make the score 3-0. Former Real Madrid striker Joselu scored a consolation for Al-Gharafa in the 75th minute.

During an interview after the game, Ronaldo was asked who he would like to dedicate his brace to. He replied (via Al Nassr Zone on X):

"To my team Al Nassr, the fans, the club and the players."

Apart from scoring a brace, Cristiano Ronaldo put in a decent shift in the 74 minutes he was on the pitch. He landed four shots on target from eight attempts, made two key passes, missed two big chances, and recorded a pass accuracy of 95 percent (via Sofascore).

The five-time Ballon d'Or winner has now scored 450 goals since turning 30. He has also recorded 16 goal contributions for the Knights of Najd this term (13G & 3A). Overall, he has scored 913 goals for club and country.

Cristiano Ronaldo is the joint-second top goalscorer in the 2024 AFC Champions League Elite

Cristiano Ronaldo has now scored four goals in the AFC Champions League Elite this season. The 39-year-old is the second joint-top scorer in the tournament so far. Only Albanian winger Jasir Asani, who plays for K League 1 club Gwangju FC has more goals than the Portuguese star in the AFC Champions League (six).

The Al-Nassr captain is the joint-second top scorer alongside Aleksander Mitrovic, Soufiane Rahimi, Arif Aiman, Taisei Miyashiro, Salem Al-Dawsari, and Anderson Lopez. The abovementioned players have also scored four goals each.

With the victory over Al-Gharfa, Cristiano Ronaldo's Al-Nassr rose to second in their group. They have 13 points from five games, two points behind fellow Saudi club Al-Ahli who lead the standings. Their next fixture in the AFC Champions League Elite will be against Al-Sadd on Monday, December 2.

About the author

Okenna is an football journalist at Sportskeeda. He has previously worked as a radio presenter at Green FM Umuahia for 4 years, and as a writer at Opera News Hub Nigeria for around 2 years. As a successful modus operandi, he strictly sticks to publishing guidelines, double checks facts while writing, pays very close attention to details and prides himself on picking complex topics to write on.

A Chelsea fan, Okenna had his first tryst with Blues in 2006, after fellow countryman John Mikel Obi joined the west London club. He was immediately drawn to the brilliance of players like Frank Lampard, Joe Cole, John Terry and Didier Drogba.

Okenna is a huge fan of Lionel Messi for his exceptional talent. He also admires Jose Mourinho for his achievements with various clubs which proves he's a tactical and disciplined manger as well as a serial winner.

Some of Okenna’s prospective career landmarks include working as an international journalist and covering a FIFA World Cup game live from the stadium. When not writing, he loves watching, movies and reading books.

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Edited by Arshit Garg