Saudi Pro League defences have been scrutinised after one defender was spotted stopping defending and seemingly walking off against Cristiano Ronaldo.
Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr put bottom of the table Al-Hazm to the sword on Saturday (September 2), winning 5-1 away from home.
Goals from former Porto winger Otavio, Ronaldo and Sadio Mane followed first-half goals by Abdulrahman Ghareeb and Abdullah Al-Khaibari on their way to a third straight win in a row.
But it was Otavio’s goal to make it 3-1 that has fans scratching their heads on social media amid bizarre defending from one Al-Hazm defender.
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Ex-Inter Milan midfielder Marcelo Brozovic found himself on the left-hand side of the box before playing a one-two with Ronaldo, who made a darting run from the edge of the box into the channel between the home side’s right-back and centre-back.
But as Ronaldo took off into the space, the Al-Hazm player who had covered the third-man run of Mane into the box, bizarrely put his arms behind his back and walked out of the 18-yard box, vacating the space in the penalty box for Ronaldo to run into.
What do you think the defender was doing? Let us know in the comments section.
Ronaldo was played through by Brozovic before he unselfishly squared across the face of goal to Otavio who had an open goal and duly slotted home Al-Nassr’s third of the game.
The defending was slammed by football fans on social media with one tweeting: “This Saudi league can’t be taken seriously.”
A second sarcastically commented: “The skills of Saudi League defenders are out of this world!
While a third added: “Bro thinks he is on a morning walk in a park.”
Al-Nassr’s victory made it three wins in a row to get their season back on track after they previously lost their opening two games of the season.
Luis Castro has a further 16 days to add to his squad containing Ronaldo, Mane, Otavio, Brozovic, Alex Telles and Aymeric Laporte, with the Saudi transfer window not closing until September, 20.
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