Al Nassr vs Al Taawoun live score, updates, lineups, and result as Ronaldo is back in Saudi Pro League 2023-2024

By | August 18, 2023
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After dropping their opening match of the season to Steven Gerrard’s Al Ettifaq, Al Nassr will hope to make up for it in their first home game of the season against Al Taawoun on Friday.

Cristiano Ronaldo and the rest of Al Nassr’s star players are expected back after sitting out Monday’s 2-1 loss to Al Ettifaq. Al Nassr coach Luis Castro gave some of them a break after they won the 2023 Arab Club Champions Cup just 48 hours prior, and the absence of the stars cost the team.

Sadio Mane got the lone goal in the season-opening loss, and he should be joined by Ronaldo and Anderson Talisca in what is a formidable front three. Midfielders Marcelo Brozovic and Seko Fofana, should also be in the mix, while Alex Telles is reportedly out injured.

Al Taawoun are not as star-studded as their opponent on Friday, but they did finish in 7th place last season and they defeated Al Nassr in one of the two league meetings. The other saw Al Nassr beat them on a late goal, 2-1.

The Sporting News will be following the Al Nassr vs Al Taawoun match live, providing score updates, commentary, and highlights as they happen.

MORE: Ranking the best players in the Saudi Pro League

Al Nassr vs Al Taawoun live score

  1st Half Goal scorers
Al Nassr 0  
Al Taaawoun 1 Leandre Tawamba 20′

Lineups:

Al Nassr (4-3-3, right to left): 33. Waleed (GK) — 2. Al Ghannam, 78. Lajami (4. Al Fatil 47′), 5.  Al Amri, 13. Konan — 6.  Fofana, 77. Brozovic, 17. Alkhaibari (29. Ghareeb 34′) — 94. Talisca, 7.  Ronaldo, 10. Mane.

Al Taawoun (5-3-2, right to left): 1. Mailson (GK) — 15. Aloyayari Abdulmalik, 4. Andrei Girotto, 42. Muath Muath, 14. Hassan Kadesh, 23. Waleed Al-Ahmed — 24. Flavio, 18. Ashraf El Mahdioui, 10. Alvaro Medran — 16. Mateus, 3. Leandre Tawamba

MORE: Updated Saudi Pro League top scorers in 2023/24

Al Nassr vs Al Taawoun live updates, highlights, and commentary

51st min.: YELLOW card to Al Taawoun’s Abdul.

47th min.: SUB Al Nassr. Disaster for the home team as they have to burn another substitution with Al Fatil coming in for the injured Lajami. That’s two subs in two separate windows. Only halftime and one window left in the second half.

45th min.: Eight minutes of stoppage time after the hydration break. Meanwhile, centre-back Ali Lajami needs to be helped off the pitch with a right foot injury. He’s asking for a sub.

34th min.: Chance Al Taawoun. It’s once again Mateus on the break, but it’s not helping him on these breakaways that he’s left-footed and playing wide right. If the counter is what you’re after, either he starts cutting inside, or he should switch flanks.

34th min.: SUB Al Nassr. It’s the speedy winger Ghareeb who comes in for holding midfielder Alkhaibari, who was on a yellow card. Aggressive change by Al Nassr coach Luis Castro.

Al Nassr are in a 4-2-3-1 with Seko Fofana and Marcelo Brozovic holding, and Anderson Talisca in the attacking midfield position with Ghareeb wide left and Mane wide right.

32nd min.: Al Taawoun are defending calmly and their Brazilian goalkeeper Mailson has been sure-handed on corners and crosses. Meanwhile, there’s been no real reaction from Al Nassr. They don’t look like they have much energy, and Ghareeb is getting ready to come off the bench.

30th min.: Big tifo by the home Al Nassr fans. It reads “Danger!” but the home team is not really getting the message thus far. They haven’t created much.

22nd min.: YELLOW card to Al Nassr’s Al Khaibari with a reckless tackle on the goal scorer, Cameroonian forward Tawamba.

20th min.: Goal Al Taawoun! It’s an easy corner kick header inside the six-yard box by Al Taawoun forward Leandre Tawamba, who was totally unmarked. Not just that, a wide-open teammate was right there with him. No one on Al Nassr was marking!

It must be said, it was a fantastic delivery by Mateus on the corner.

16th min.: Al Nassr’s attacking quality slowly coming through, with a lot of the action going through Sadio Mane on the left flank. But when Al Taawoun go on the break, they’ve been dangerous. The visitors do have quality attacking players who can create danger.

8th min.: Chance Al Nassr! It’s Ronaldo from outside the box, and he measures his shot to bounce in front of Al Taawoun’s Brazilian ‘keeper, who swats it away.

Cristiano Ronaldo sat centre-back Hassan Kadesh down.

6th min.: Chance Al Taawoun! It’s Mateus once more down the right flank, but he can’t gather himself at the end line and the chance is lost. The Al Nassr offside trap has struggled here.

3rd min.: Chance Al Taawoun! It’s Brazilian right winger Mateus running onto a ball over the top and he tries to poke it past Al Nassr goalkeeper Waleed Abdullah, who comes up with the stop, while taking a knock in the process.

1st min.: We’re off. Al Nassr in the yellow and blue, and the visiting Wolves of Al Taawoun are in black.

Kickoff

5 minutes prior to kickoff: Teams are on the field. Kickoff is near.

15 minutes prior to kickoff: The Alawwal Stadium looks like it’s filling slowly …

But that’s because there are long lines outside the building for Ronaldo’s 2023/24 league debut.

45 minutes prior to kickoff: Players are out for warmups.

1 hour prior to kickoff: Lineups are out.

1 hour, 10 minutes prior to kickoff: Bodies are flying all over the screen as fans try to jump as high as Cristiano Ronaldo does on his headers. That’s a clever execution by the Al Nassr matchday staff at Al Awwal Park.

1 hour, 15 minutes prior to kickoff: Breaking news that Al Nassr left-back Alex Telles is not in the matchday squad due to injury. Expect veteran Ivorian fullback Ghislain Konan to take over duties. Konan was the regular starter at the position last season.

1 hour, 30 minutes prior to kickoff: Cristiano Ronaldo is in the house. Expect his name to be listed in the Al Nassr starting lineup coming up in 30 minutes.

1 hour, 40 minutes prior to kickoff: The last time that Al Nassr welcomed Al Taawoun on Feb. 17 (2022/23 season), it was a magisterial assist from Cristiano Ronaldo that opened up the scoring. Ronaldo didn’t find the net on this day, but he assisted both goals in a 2-1 home win.

1 hour, 50 minutes prior to kickoff: It’s an Al Nassr hype video. This team is dreaming of trophies in 2023/24. In addition to their 2023 Arab Club Champions Cup triumph (the silverware in the video from August 12), Ronaldo & Co. are busy on four other competitive fronts:

  • Saudi Pro League
  • King Cup
  • Saudi Super Cup
  • Asian Champions League

2 hours prior to kickoff: Al Nassr might not be done building their super team with a report that they’re ready to pay the €60 million release clause for 28-year-old Porto creative midfielder Otavio.

Al Nassr vs Al Taawoun lineups

Al Nassr lost their opening match to an Al Ettifaq side captained by Jordan Henderson, but they didn’t have the first-choice lineup except for Sadio Mane, who struck early in that match. Except for the injured Alex Telles, manager Luis Castro rolls out his best starting XI though it’s a surprise to see backup goalkeeper Waleed Abdullah in goal in place of the regular Nawaf Al Aqidi, who’s on the bench.

Al Nassr starting lineup (4-3-3, right to left): 33. Waleed Abudllah (GK) — 2. Sultan Al Ghannam, 78. Ali Lajami, 5. Abdulelah Al Amri, 13. Ghislain Konan — 6. Seko Fofana, 77. Marcelo Brozovic, 17. Abdullah Alkhaibari — 94. Anderson Talisca, 7. Cristiano Ronaldo, 10. Sadio Mane.

Al Nassr subs (9): 44. Nawaf Al Aqidi (GK), 12. Nawaf Al Boushal, 4. Mohammed Al Fatil, 24. Mohammed Qassem, 19. Ali Alhassan, 8. Abdulmajeed Alsulaihem, 11. Khalid Al Ghannam, 30. Meshari Al Nemer, 29. Abdulrahman Ghareeb

Al Taawoun had a different type of transfer window than Al Nassr, bringing in a Brazilian trio: centre-back Andrei Girotto on a small fee from French club FC Nantes, midfielder Flavio on loan from Trabzonspor, and winger Mateus from Japanese club Nagoya Grampus, alongside some players offloaded by giants Al Ittihad and Al Hilal. All three Brazilians start together with former Real Madrid reserve player Alvaro Medran.

Al Taawoun starting lineup (5-3-2, right to left): 1. Mailson (GK) — 15. Aloyayari Abdulmalik, 4. Andrei Girotto, 42. Muath Muath, 14. Hassan Kadesh, 23. Waleed Al-Ahmed — 24. Flavio, 18. Ashraf El Mahdioui, 10. Alvaro Medran — 16. Mateus, 3. Leandre Tawamba

Al Taawoun subs (9): 36. Raghid Najjar (GK), 11. Fahad Al Abdulrazzaq, 31. Saad Yaslam Balobaid, 9. Abdulmalek Al Shammary, 6. Mohamed Al Ghamdi, 93. Awn Al Saluli, 7. Sattam Al Roqi, 8. Saad Al Nasser, 29. Ahmed Bahusayn.

Al Nassr vs Al Taawoun live stream, TV channel

This Saudi Pro League match at King Saud University kicks off on Friday, August 18 at 9 p.m. local time in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Here’s how that time translates across some of the major territories:

MORE: How to watch Saudi Pro League in USA | How to watch in UK

  Date Kickoff time TV channel Streaming
USA Fri, Aug. 18 2 p.m. ET FS2, Fox Deportes Fubo, Fox Sports GO
Canada Fri, Aug. 18 2 p.m. ET  — DAZN
UK Fri, Aug. 18 7 p.m. BST  — DAZN
Australia Sat, Aug. 19 4 a.m. AEST  — 10 Play
India Fri, Aug. 18 11:30 p.m. IST Sony TEN 2 Sony LIV, JioTV
Hong Kong Sat, Aug. 19 2 a.m. HKT SPOTV SPOTV
Malaysia Sat, Aug. 19 2 a.m. MYT SPOTV SPOTV
Singapore Sat, Aug. 19 2 a.m. SGT SPOTV SPOTV
New Zealand Sat, Aug. 19 6 a.m. NZST  — Shahid

Al Nassr vs Al Taawoun odds

Al Nassr are the favoured team in what the odds say will be a high-scoring game, with the betting market leaning toward the over 2.5 total goals.

The spread (handicap) is also set at +/-1.5 (instead of the tighter +/- 0.5) as a sign of just how powerful this Al Nassr attack is expected to be with all the starters returning.

  Al Nassr
win		 Draw Al Taawoun
win		 Both teams
to score Y / N		 Over / Under
2.5 goals		 NAS
-1.5		 TAA
+1.5
Sports
Interaction
(Canada)		 1.25 5.01 8.41 — 1.57 / 2.26 1.80 1.95
Dafabet
(India)		 1.27 5.40 9.20 2.05 / 1.75 1.75 / 2.12 1.89 1.99
Top Betting Sites
(UK)		 1/4 4/1 15/2 20/21, 3/4 4/7, 13/10 — —

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