Cristiano Ronaldo and Al Nassr are already through to the AFC Champions League Round of 16, but they can extend their winning record in the competition against Iranian side Persepolis today.
The Saudi outfit are top of Group E with four wins from four and have already booked their spot in the next round.
But Ronaldo and his teammates won’t want to pass up an opportunity to pile on the goals and keep up the considerable momentum they’re generating this season under head coach Luis Castro. The manager may look to rotate his team a little, but he will be keen for another victory at King Saud University Stadium.
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The Sporting News is tracking live scoring updates and highlights from the AFC Champions League. Follow the updates below.
MORE: Where to watch Al Nassr vs Persepolis, lineups and latest news
Al Nassr vs Persepolis live score
| First Half | Goalscorers | |
| Al Nassr | — | — |
| Persepolis | — | — |
Projected lineups:
Al Nassr predicted starting lineup (4-2-3-1): Raghed — Al Ghanam, Alamri, Al-Fatil, Telles — Fofana, Al-Najei — Talisca, Otavio, Ghareeb — Ronaldo
Subs: TBC
Persepolis predicted starting lineup (4-4-2): Rafiei — Nemati, Kanaanizadegan, Esmaeilifar, Pouraliganji -— Amiri, Rigi, Sarlak, Omri — Sadeghi, Zahedi.
Subs: TBC
Al Nassr vs Persepolis live updates, highlights
1 hr, 45 mins from kickoff: If there’s one thing we know about Cristiano Ronaldo, it’s that he loves individual milestones. So the fact he’s not even close to being this season’s AFC Champions League top-scorer may irk him. In actual fact, it’s a different Al Nassr player: Anderson Talisca has six goals to Ronaldo’s three.
The two may end up vying for a sight of goal this evening. We’ll see if either or both of them are starting for Al Nassr when official team news lands around an hour before kickoff.
2 hrs from kickoff: Hello and welcome to the The Sporting News’ live coverage of this AFC Champions League game. This is actually a far bigger match for today’s visitors, Persepolis of the Iran Pro League, who are second behind Al Nassr in the table and in need of one or two more points to rubberstamp their Round of 16 place.
For Al Nassr, it’s a chance to make sure of top spot in Group E but just generally continue the good feeling they’ve generated this season, sitting second in their domestic league and trying to chase down leaders Al Hilal. Cristiano Ronaldo will be licking his lips for goals, should he start.
Time for Champions League 🙌💛 pic.twitter.com/JfxYdaerpm
— AlNassr FC (@AlNassrFC_EN) November 27, 2023
Al Nassr vs Persepolis lineups, team news
Despite him training with the first team squad over the past week or so, Al Nassr are likely to be without centre-back Aymeric Laporte here as he continues to recover from injury.
Elsewhere, David Ospina has been missing since March with an elbow injury and he remains out, likely until 2024.
Al Nassr predicted starting lineup (4-2-3-1): Raghed — Al Ghanam, Alamri, Al-Fatil, Telles — Fofana, Al-Najei — Talisca, Otavio, Ghareeb — Ronaldo
With the visitors needing to win here to have any chance of claiming top spot in the group, they’ll be buoyed by the fact that they arrive in Saudi Arabia without any notable first team injuries to deal with at present.
Persepolis predicted starting lineup (4-4-2): Rafiei — Nemati, Kanaanizadegan, Esmaeilifar, Pouraliganji -— Amiri, Rigi, Sarlak, Omri — Sadeghi, Zahedi.
Al Nassr vs Persepolis live stream, TV channel
Kickoff time: This AFC Champions League match at King Saud University Stadium kicks off on Monday, November 27 at 9 p.m. local time in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. That’s 6pm GMT in the UK, 1pm for many in the USA and Canada and 2am (Tuesday) for those in Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong.
And here’s how various audiences around the globe can tune in to watch the game.
| TV channel | Streaming | |
| USA | — | Paramount+ |
| UK | — | FITE+ |
| Australia | — | Paramount+ |
| Canada | — | — |
| India | — | FanCode |
| New Zealand | — | — |
| Malaysia | — | — |
| Singapore | — | — |
| Hong Kong | — | — |
USA: Broadcast rights for the AFC Champions League in the United States are owned by CBS. All matches will be shown on streaming service Paramount+ while some select matches may also be viewed on CBS Sports Golazo Network, which is a free-to-air streaming service.
While there’s no indication of this as of now, it’s also possible that CBS decides later in the competition to televise matches on CBS or CBS Sports Network. Any matches televised on either of those two channels would be available to stream on Fubo.
UK: Fans who subscribe to streaming platform FITE+ will be able to stream the match.
Australia: Fans in Australia can watch AFC Champions League matches on streaming service Paramount+ with no television partner yet picked up.
According to the official AFC broadcast list, countries that are without broadcast partners as of yet include Canada and New Zealand among others.