Cristiano Ronaldo suffered his heaviest defeat since joining Al Nassr after the Saudi Pro League champions were thrashed 4-0 by Al Ain in their opening AFC Champions League Elite fixture in the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday.
Al Nassr endured a nightmare return to Asia’s premier club competition as a brace from Houssine Rahimi and further goals from his brother Soufiane Rahimi and Giorgos Giakoumakis secured a convincing victory for the hosts.
Houssine opened the scoring in the 25th minute after capitalising on Saad Al-Nasser’s under-hit back pass before doubling Al Ain’s lead in the 63rd minute.
Soufiane made it 3-0 nine minutes later, racing onto Alejandro Romero’s through ball before firing into the bottom corner.
Giakoumakis completed the rout five minutes from time when Soufiane turned provider, rolling the ball into the Greek striker’s path for a simple close-range finish.
The result marked Ronaldo’s heaviest defeat since his move to Al Nassr, according to reports following the match.
The Portuguese forward started alongside new signing João Félix but was unable to inspire a response as Al Nassr were comprehensively outplayed.
The defeat also revived memories of the clubs’ previous meeting in the 2023/24 AFC Champions League. Al Ain eliminated Ronaldo’s side in the quarter-finals after the tie ended 4-4 on aggregate, winning the decisive penalty shootout 3-1 in Riyadh.
Al Ain forward Giakoumakis said his side had expected a difficult encounter and praised the team’s performance.
“We knew it was going to be tough, we had to give it our all and I think we did that,” he said.
“We were really mature from the first to the last moment and we managed to score a good amount of goals and have a good victory.”
The defeat leaves Al Nassr without a point after the opening round of the 2026/27 AFC Champions League Elite league phase, while Al Ain begin their campaign with three points.
The expanded league phase features 16 teams, with the top eight advancing to the knockout rounds. The quarter-finals, semi-finals and final are scheduled to be played in Saudi Arabia in March, April and May.
