SAUDI PRO LEAGUE
Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema meet again in Saudi Pro League clash
Al Nassr and Al Ittihad face each other in Jeddah in one of the big games in the Saudi Pro League with both teams trailing runaway leaders Al Hilal.
When Karim Benzema landed in Saudi Arabia this summer, he and Cristiano Ronaldo were expected to be the leaders of the teams that were going to compete in the 2023-24 season with Al Ittihad reigning champions and Al Nassr one of the big guns in the SPL. At the halfway stage of the campaign, both teams are well behind trailblazing Al Hilal with the Riyadh based outfit yet to lose all season.
The Blue Waves, which includes big names such as Yaccine Bono, Koulibaly, Rúben Neves, Milinkovic-Savic, and, above all, Mitrovic, who has 24 goals in 25 games have been relentless and are also missing Neymar who only featured five times this season before sustaining torn cruciate.
Jeddah Tigers well off the pace
Al Ittihad have been disappointing this season and are currently 22 points behind Al Hilal and their poor form led to former coach Nuno Espirito Santo being sacked in November with the Tigers drafting in Argentine Marcelo Gallardo. The former River Plate boss has delivered mixed results for the Jeddah giants.
Al Nassr started the season poorly but have started to deliver consistent displays and trail their Riyadh neighbours by ten points and still have the goals of Cristiano Ronaldo to count on with the veteran Portuguese striker finding the net 17 times this season, delivering nine assists in the process.
Benzema-CR7 reunion
Today (Tuesday, 26 December), the Portuguese and French strikers will share the pitch again. Their last meeting was at the delayed Euro 2020 tournament with the game between their respective national sides ending in a 2-2 draw.
Both players played together for Real Madrid 342 games with Cristiano bagging 47 goals from Benzema assists and the Lyon born front-man slotting home 29 CR7 assisted goals.