Cristiano Ronaldo's hat trick leads Al Nassr past Al Kholood in thrilling 5-3

Cristiano Ronaldo scored a hat trick as Al Nassr beat Al Kholood 5-3 at Al-Awwal Park, in a match that started badly for the home side: in the 9th minute VAR ruled out a goal from Ronaldo himself, and just six minutes later Al Kholood went ahead through a strike from Julien Domingues from the center of the box. The final score, with eight goals shared between the two nets, ended up looking very different from that opening.

The equalizer came quickly: Angelo, set up by Joao Felix, leveled the score in the 23rd minute with a left-footed shot. The match stayed even until, following a counterattack, Sadio Mane made it 2-1 in the 37th minute, also assisted by Joao Felix, who ended up being the night's chief playmaker. But Al Kholood didn't fall behind for long: right at the start of the second half, in the 46th minute, Antoin Essomba drew the visitors level again off a Domingues assist. At 2-2, the match was wide open.

That's when Ronaldo took over. In the 65th minute he broke the tie with a close-range finish near the left post, once again set up by Joao Felix. Six minutes later, in the 71st minute, he stretched the lead with a header, also assisted by the Portuguese forward. And to cap off his performance, in the 80th minute he made it 5-2 with a shot from the center of the box, this time off a pass from Mane. Al Kholood pulled one back in stoppage time: a foul inside the box led to a penalty for Al Kholood after a VAR review, and Domingues made no mistake from the spot to make it a final 5-3.

The numbers behind the result

Al Nassr's dominance shows up in the match statistics, with more than double the shots and a clear gap in clear-cut chances.

Based on our expected goals estimate calculated from the match's shots, Al Nassr generated 4.55 xG compared to 2.04 for Al Kholood, a gap that lines up with how the game actually played out, despite the scare of trailing in the first half.

Before the match, we had projected an Al Nassr win at 84% probability, with 11% for a draw and just 5% for Al Kholood. We also projected an expected goals scoreline of 3.31 for Al Nassr and 0.82 for Al Kholood. The final result confirmed the home side as favorites, though with considerably more goals on both ends than that projection anticipated, especially from Al Kholood, who ended up scoring three.

What it means in the standings

With this result, Al Nassr holds onto second place with 28 points from 11 matches played, level on points with leaders Al-Qadsiah but with a game in hand. Al Kholood, meanwhile, sits in tenth place with 12 points from 11 matches, 16 points behind tonight's opponent. The loss doesn't change their standing much, but it does leave the impression that the visitors competed on equal terms for long stretches, something their overall numbers in the table wouldn't have suggested going in.

For Al Nassr, the night will be remembered for Cristiano Ronaldo's hat trick and his constant connection with Joao Felix, who was involved in several of the team's goals. For Al Kholood, there's some consolation in scoring three times away from home and making the hosts sweat until the very end, even with a penalty converted in the match's final gasp.