Al Nassr saw off Al Fateh 3-0 in the opening round of the Pro League on Thursday. The hosts moved into second place with five wins from five games, while their visitors sit sixteen with just three draws. It was a straightforward evening for the home side, who controlled the tempo from the start.
And here's the thing about this match — you could see where it was heading by the twentieth minute. Al Nassr had already established their rhythm, passing through the middle with that familiar confidence. They kept knocking on the door, and when the chance came, they took it.
Angelo opened the scoring in the thirty-seventh minute, finishing a move that had been building since the first whistle. Joao Felix doubled the lead three minutes later, and by then the game was effectively over. To be fair, Al Fateh had their moments, but they couldn't find a way through when it mattered.
The statistics tell the story, though I've always found them less interesting than the actual moments. Al Nassr registered nine shots on target against three for their visitors, with expected goals of 1.63 to 1.06. They had 59 per cent possession and forty-four nine passes completed, while Al Fateh scraped by with two hundred and forty-three successful passes.
Samu Costa added the third goal in the seventy-third minute, and the rest of the evening was about managing the result. There were substitutions on both sides — K. Coman and Joao Felix both came off for Al Nassr in the sixty-sixth minute — but the pattern didn't change.
Al Nassr now sit on twelve points, one behind the leaders, while Al Fateh remain rooted to the bottom with just three points from five outings. They cannot afford another slip if they want to avoid trouble, and this result may have made that harder.