Overview
Without superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, Al Nassr was held to a draw by Al Shorta (Qatar) in the opening match of the 2024-2025 AFC Champions League. After a series of unimpressive matches, the draw against Al Shorta was considered the "last straw" that led Al Nassr to fire coach Luis Castro.
Stefano Pioli was then appointed to the "hot seat" of Al Nassr. Immediately, the Italian strategist showed his cool hand when he and his students won 3 consecutive matches. Including 2 matches in the Saudi Pro League and a victory over Al Hazem in the Arab King's Cup. Pioli's goal now is to help the Al-Awwal team get the first 3 points in the continental arena.
Al Nassr will certainly continue to rely heavily on Ronaldo for inspiration. CR7 is still maintaining a good scoring performance this season, with 6 goals and 2 assists after 7 matches. Ronaldo has now scored in 2 consecutive matches for Al Nassr.
In addition, Al Nassr can also put their faith in other attacking stars such as Sadio Mane, Angelo Gabriel or Anderson Talisca.
Al Rayyan, on the other hand, are in a disappointing run of form. The Qatari side have lost all three of their last matches, including a 1-3 defeat to Al Hilal in the AFC Champions League. They have also lost four of their last five matches in the Qatar Stars League and are currently ninth out of 12 teams.
Al Nassr is rated higher than Al Rayyan in many aspects. Besides the home field advantage, Ronaldo and his teammates are likely to win all 3 points.
Notably, this will be the first time Al Nassr and Al Rayyan meet in an official match.
Human resources situation
Al Nassr are expected to be without three players through injury in this match, including Aymeric Laporte, Marcelo Brozovic and Sami Al-Najei.
On the other side of the front line, the away team Al Rayyan almost has the best personnel options.
Expected lineup:
Al Nassr: Krepski, Al Ghanam, Lajami, Simakan, Al Najdi, Ali, Otavio, Angelo, Wesley, Ronaldo, Mane.
Al Rayyan: Victor, Brenet, Amaro, Garcia, Shehata, Pereira, Hatem, De Sart, Trezeguet, Guedes, Bencharki.
The match between Al Nassr and Al Rayyan takes place at 1:00 a.m. on October 1 (Vietnam time).
