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Cristiano Ronaldo's Al Nassr Knocked Out of AFC Champions League via Penalty Shootout After Seven-Goal Epic Against Al Ain

Cristiano Ronaldo's Al Nassr exited the AFC Champions League after losing to Al Ain in a penalty shootout in the quarter-finals following a seven-goal thriller.

Robert Summerscales

Cristiano Ronaldo's Al Nassr Knocked Out of AFC Champions League via Penalty Shootout After Seven-Goal Epic Against Al Ain
Cristiano Ronaldo's Al Nassr Knocked Out of AFC Champions League via Penalty Shootout After Seven-Goal Epic Against Al Ain /

Cristiano Ronaldo's Al Nassr exited the AFC Champions League after losing to Al Ain in a penalty shootout in the quarter-finals on Monday night.

After losing 1-0 in the first leg in the United Arab Emirates last week, Al Nassr won 4-3 after extra time at home to level the contest at 4-4 on aggregate.

But the away side then prevailed 3-1 on spot-kicks to progress to the semi-finals.

Cristiano Ronaldo converted his penalty in the shootout but teammates Marcelo Brozovic, Alex Telles and Otavio all failed to hit the net.

Brozovic's penalty was saved by Khalid Eisa, who therefore ended the night as the Al Ain hero.

But Eisa had earlier been at fault for three of Al Nassr's four goals.

Highlights: Al Nassr 4-3 Al Ain (4-4 on aggregate, 1-3 on penalties)

Having scored the only goal in the first leg, Soufiane Rahimi netted twice before half-time in Riyadh to put Al-Ain 3-0 up on aggregate.

The tie appeared to be over but strikes from Abdulrahman Ghareeb, Telles and an Eisa own goal then saw Al Nassr force extra time.

Ghareeb's goal came after Eisa raced out of the penalty area in a reckless bid to take the ball off Mane.

Mane dribbled away from Eisa before firing the ball to Ghareeb, who scored from six yards.

Eisa's own goal arrived six minutes after half-time when he deflected a cross from Otavio into the net.

It was 3-2 to Al Nassr - and 3-3 on aggregate - 21 minutes later when Telles beat Eisa with a fairly tame free-kick from the right flank.

Eisa got two hands on the ball but failed to keep it out.

The experienced UAE international had made another blunder moments earlier but Ronaldo failed to punish him.

Ali Lajami shot straight at Eisa, who palmed the ball into Ronaldo's path, only for the 39-year-old to miss the target from three yards.

Extra time started badly for Al Nassr when a VAR review resulted in Aiman Yahya being sent off.

Yahya jumped over teammate Abdullah Al-Khaibari - who was on the ground - before landing with his feet on top of Al Ain midfielder Bandar Al-Ahbabi.

Mane was lucky not to have also seen red earlier in the game after grabbing an Al Ain player by the throat.

The 10 men of Al Nassr fell 4-3 behind on aggregate just before half-time in extra time following a mistake by Raghid Al-Najjar.

Instead of catching a cross from Matias Palacios, keeper Al-Najjar pushed the ball up onto his own crossbar.

The ball then bounced kindly for Sultan Al-Shamsi to volley home from an unmissable position.

Despite their numerical disadvantage, Al Nassr applied plenty of pressure on the Al Ain goal.

Eisa produced a fine double save to deny Ronaldo in the 16th minute of extra time but got nowhere near the former Real Madrid forward's penalty kick 12 minutes later.

The spot-kick had been won by Ronaldo when he was fouled off the ball by Saeed Jumaa.

Ronaldo was Al Nassr's third penalty taker in the shootout and his team were 2-0 down by the time he stepped up.

His successful conversion gave Al Nassr a glimmer of hope but that disappeared when Otavio fired wide moments later.

Cristiano Ronaldo pictured (right) moments before he converted a penalty kick for Al Nassr in a losing cause against Al Ain in the AFC Champions League's round of 16 in March 2024
Cristiano Ronaldo was the only Al Nassr player to score in Monday's penalty shootout against Al Ain / CBS Sports
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Robert Summerscales
ROBERT SUMMERSCALES

Robert Summerscales launched FanNation Futbol in February 2022. Rob is a British journalist who previously spent two years on the sports desk at the Daily Mail in London, having earlier served as editor of CaughtOffside.com. He has been to the last two FIFA Men's World Cups, in Russia and Qatar, and is looking forward to completing his hat-trick in North America in 2026.