Coach Substitutes Cristiano Ronaldo, and Al-Nassr Stages a Comeback: Sparks Fly After the Game

First sparks fly between Ange Postecoglou, Al-Nassr’s new coach, and star player Cristiano Ronaldo. The Greek coach had no qualms about taking CR7 off the field at halftime of the match against Al-Ettifaq, when the team was down 2-0 and down to 10 men following Bento’s ejection.

The five-time Ballon d’Or winner didn’t take it well and stayed in the locker room for the second half: without him, Al-Nassr rallied and turned the game around with goals from Mané (a brace) and Al Amri.

After the match and the celebrations (without Ronaldo), Postecoglou commented on what had happened: “My job is to try to help the players in every game based on what I see”—as reported by *La Gazzetta dello Sport*. As for Cristiano, we know he hasn’t played much lately, and with us down to ten men, it was difficult for him to continue after 45 minutes. The defenders were marking him very tightly, so I spoke with Cristiano at halftime and explained my reasoning to him. I think there’s a more important story today, and that is that the ten Al Nassr players were incredible. That’s all you should be writing about; the rest doesn’t matter.”

Ronaldo explained his outburst to a Saudi TV station as follows: “I was telling the coach that I bore no responsibility for what happened. I can’t be blamed if we didn’t score. I was trying to play, to create chances, but the situation changed completely after the red card. The first goal was the result of a major mistake by the goalkeeper, and then the red card came, so suddenly we found ourselves playing with ten men.”

“What was I supposed to do? I couldn’t play goalkeeper, I couldn’t stop the referee from sending off Bento, and I couldn’t score on every shot. I was frustrated because we were down 2-0, obviously, but I wasn’t blaming anyone. I was simply saying, ‘Coach, it’s not my fault. I did my job.’ After that, the most important thing was to put the arguments behind us and focus on the second half. We had to believe we could still come back, and luckily, the team showed incredible character. Soccer is never just about one player.”