Three takeaways: Is Al Nassr’s season imploding after AFC Champions League exit?

With the Saudi Pro League title race seemingly a foregone conclusion, Al Nassr had focused much of its recent attention on winning its maiden AFC Champions League trophy. Standing in its way at the quarter-final stage was 2003 champion Al Ain and after a 1-0 first-leg victory for the UAE side, Luis Castro’s players knew a big performance was required to progress in Riyadh.

In arguably the stand-out match of this season’s AFC Champions League, Al Nassr won 4-3 on a rollercoaster night to take the tie to penalties but it was Al Ain that triumphed in the shootout to book a semi-final clash with Al Ittihad or, more likely, Al Hilal. For Castro and Al Nassr, it was continental heartbreak again; the Saudi club has never won the competition and last reached the final in 1995.

Here, Al Arabiya English selects three key takeaways from Al Nassr’s heartbreaking AFC Champions League exit at al-Awwal Park:

Ronaldo rues missed chance

Cristiano Ronaldo has spoken many times of his desire to add a sixth continental club medal to his already bulging collection and before the second leg against Al Ain he posted on social media, saying “Ready to turn this around, Inshallah.” But the Portuguese superstar, whose mother was pictured in attendance in Riyadh, will now have to wait another year if he is to supplement the four UEFA Champions Leagues he won with Real Madrid and one with Manchester United.

The Al Nassr captain is so often the man for the big occasion and there were another couple of key moments in which he stepped up against Al Ain. With two minutes of extra-time remaining and the pressure piled firmly on his broad shoulders, Ronaldo won and then converted a nerveless penalty to take the match to a shootout, in which he also scored from 12 yards to keep his team’s hopes alive.

Those interventions were not enough, however, with Al Nassr losing 3-1 on penalties and Ronaldo left to regret one missed opportunity in particular. In the 60th minute, with the goal at his mercy from three yards, Ronaldo somehow dragged a left-footed shot wide of Khalid Eisa’s post. The whole stadium appeared to draw breath and Al Nassr’s No. 7 looked at the sky in disbelief at the spurned chance. Had Ronaldo scored, Castro’s side would have had more time to find the additional goal needed to progress.

The Portuguese forward did his best to redeem himself by scoring two further penalties in extra-time and the shootout, but spot-kick misses from Marcelo Brozovic, Alex Telles and Otavio handed victory to Al Ain. Despite that trio of penalty failures, it was Ronaldo’s miss that immediately became the defining moment of the match, with footage shared widely across social media in the aftermath.

Al-Najjar’s night to forget

Ronaldo was not alone in being subject to post-game ridicule, with Al Nassr goalkeeper Raghed al-Najjar also experiencing a significantly uncomfortable moment in the quarter-final exit. Al-Najjar kept a clean sheet in the 1-0 last-16 victory over Al Fayha but injury kept him out of the first leg in Al Ain, with Colombian David Ospina drafted back into the team.

Ospina showed signs of ring rust in his past two matches, however, after more than a year on the sidelines, so Al Nassr coach Castro made a big call in recalling Al Najjar to his starting XI for the visit of Al Ain. It was not the only major change to the backline, with experienced centre-back Aymeric Laporte missing through suspension after a late red card in the first leg.

Sadly, it was a night to forget for al-Najjar. Al Ain sprung into a two-goal lead thanks to a brace from this season’s AFC Champions League top scorer Soufiane Rahimi. The Moroccan’s first goal was slotted through al-Najjar’s legs and the second saw the Saudi shot-stopper beaten at his near post. Worse was to come with Al Ain’s third as Matias Palacios’ hopeful right-wing cross was fumbled badly by al-Najjar, allowing Sultan al-Shamsi to tap in and giving Al Nassr a mountain to climb in extra-time.

Al-Najjar’s misery was then compounded in the penalty shootout as he failed to save any of Al Ain’s three spot-kicks. Just as they did during the 120 minutes, Rahimi and al-Shamsi scored past him, with Alejandro Romero also netting successfully from 12 yard to send the Emirati club through. With al-Najjar having only played a handful of games this season, it seems likely that Ospina will be recalled for Friday’s Saudi Pro League clash with Al Ahli.

Will Castro be cast aside?

Six months is a long time in football and it seems like only yesterday that Castro was celebrating winning his first trophy with Al Nassr, beating Al Hilal in the final of the Arab Club Champions Cup. But the victory was not prescient. This season has belonged to Al Hilal and the pre-season tournament won by Al Nassr is simply not as well regarded as the triumvirate of Saudi Pro League, AFC Champions League and King’s Cup.

The latter is now Castro’s only opportunity to claim major silverware and salvage a campaign that began with so much promise. Victory would certainly endear him to Al Nassr fans, who have not seen their club lift the King’s Cup since 1990. The semi-final draw has not yet been made but it is likely that treble-chasing Al Hilal will be standing in the way again, either in the last four or the final.

The big spending carried out by Al Nassr last summer on Sadio Mane, Aymeric Laporte and Marcelo Brozovic – among others – heightened expectations. It means that any failure to win a trophy would likely see Castro follow his predecessors out of the exit door. Al Nassr burned through 14 bosses in seven years before Castro, but the Portuguese coach remained bullish about his future in Riyadh in his post-match press conference after the Al Ain defeat.

“My presence at Al Nassr depends on the honest and dignified work I do every day with my players. I don’t depend on results,” Castro told reporters. “I have never been fired in my career, I don’t have to be fired – in 25 years I’ve never left a club halfway through. Do you know why? Because anyone who works with me every day knows that I’m not afraid of the results. I’m not afraid of anything.”