Cristiano Ronaldo and Aleksandar Mitrovic Lead the Way as Saudi Pro League Stars Impress on International Duty
Al Nassr’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Al Hilal’s Aleksandar Mitrovic have shown no signs of slowing down as they extend their Saudi Pro League hot streaks to their national teams. Both strikers were on the scoresheet for Portugal and Serbia, respectively, over the weekend.
Captaining Portugal’s national team, Cristiano Ronaldo lined up alongside Al Hilal’s Ruben Neves with his Al Nassr teammate Joao Cancelo on the bench. Ronaldo scored the second goal as Portugal claimed victory away to Poland, with the match ending 3-1.
While Ronaldo has noted that he’s not interested in chasing personal records anymore, the goal extended his national team’s all-time leading scorer record to 133 goals. It was also his tenth goal in 11 appearances this season for club and country. He only failed to score once on match day three when Al Nassr hosted Al Ahli in a match that ended 1-1.
The Saudi Pro League’s early season frontrunner, Aleksandar Mitrovic, scored an impressive solo goal for Serbia in their 2-0 victory against Switzerland. Lining up alongside him was Al Ittihad’s goalkeeper, Predrag Rajkovic, who kept a clean sheet by saving a penalty in the second half to crown his all-around decent performance.
Mitrovic’s international form hasn’t been as good as his domestic one. He has nine goals in the Saudi Pro League so far this season, but this was his first competitive goal for Serbia this year. He hopes it will be the beginning of a scoring streak as he seeks to help climb up the rankings in Group A of the UEFA Nations League.
Other Saudi stars who enjoyed themselves on national duty include Al Nassr’s Aymeric Laporte, who played in Spain’s 1-0 home victory against Denmark, and Damac’s Nicolae Stanciu, who was part of the Romania team that bet Cyprus 3-0.
Elsewhere, Al Hilal’s goalkeeper, Yassine Bono, only lasted 32 minutes on the pitch in Morocco’s 5-0 win against the Central African Republic. The league leaders will hope that his injury is minor and that the reigning SPL’s Goalkeeper of the Year will be ready to start once league action resumes.
The Saudi Pro League will resume on Friday for matchweek seven after the final round of international fixtures is played starting Tuesday.
