Cristiano Ronaldo has enjoyed an absolutely glittering career filled with highlight-reel goals and sensational moments, winning countless trophies and submitting a resume fit for one of the greatest to ever play football.
Yet even the prolific Portuguese star is prone to some truly terrible misses, and few will be more damaging than his utterly baffling effort for Al Nassr on Monday.
The Saudi club was dumped out of the 2023/24 AFC Champions League at the hands of UAE side Al Ain, who advanced on a penalty shootout after a 4-4 aggregate draw. Al Nassr trailed 3-0 on aggregate after conceding the first two goals on Monday to follow a 1-0 first leg defeat, but stormed all the way back to level things up at 3-3.
In the midst of that comeback, Ronaldo produced one of the worst misses of his entire career, a goal which would could have potentially avoided all the nonsense to come. Al Nassr were eventually eliminated on penalties, ejected early from a competition in which they had been expected to win the title, leaving the 39-year-old to rue the calamitous moment for a long time.
MORE: Recap the wild second leg between Al Nassr and Al Ain in the AFC Champions League quarters
Watch Cristiano Ronaldo miss for Al Nassr in Champions League
Al Nassr were in a huge aggregate hole as halftime of their AFC Champions League quarterfinal neared, down 3-0 after falling short in the first leg and conceding a pair in the first half.
Yet the Saudi side charged all the way back, leading 3-2 in the match and level on aggregate at 3-3. Cristiano Ronaldo was central to that comeback, scoring the equaliser in the 118th minute from the penalty spot.
While that was an emotional moment which progressed the match to a penalty shootout, those eventually fatal penalties could have been avoided had Ronaldo not suffered an embarrassing miss earlier in the match.
In the 61st minute, Sadio Mane fed a cross into the penalty area which, off a deflection, fell to Ali Lajami. The Saudi Arabian international fired a relatively weak shot on frame, but for some reason Al Ain goalkeeper Khalid Eisa was unable to smother the shot entirely, only managing to parry it weakly straight into Ronaldo's path.
The Portuguese star, only three feet from the line with the goalkeeper helplessly on the ground, somehow, incredibly, missed from point-blank range. He was standing essentially on the goal line with the entire net to shoot at, only needing to tap the ball to level the score...but put it shockingly wide.
Watch in USA:
CRISTIANO FROM 3 YARDS TO TIE IT ON AGGREGATE 😳 pic.twitter.com/Kg24bEqCWd
— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) March 11, 2024
Will Al Nassr qualify for AFC Champions League next year?
While Al Nassr are now out of the 2023/24 AFC Champions League, Cristiano Ronaldo should get another chance to win the Asian continental title next season if he remains with the Saudi Pro League side.
Like the European version of the competition, the AFC Champions League is moving to a new format next season, with the top competition set to be known as the AFC Champions League Elite, while a number of tiered tournaments are added below.
The Saudi Pro League will see its top three league finishers qualify for the Elite competition in 2024/25. With Al Nassr sitting second in the table as it stands, six points above third-placed Al Ahli and a massive 13-point gap above fourth-placed Al Ittihad, it seems very likely that Al Nassr will qualify for next year's competition.
Still, they'll have to start all over, wasting this seemingly great opportunity to lift the trophy this current campaign.
