CRISTIANO RONALDO turned down Al-Nassr’s last-gasp penalty yesterday to let teammate Anderson Talisca take it.
The Saudi title fighters were tied at 1-1 with Abha going into the final five minutes.
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When they won a penalty in the 86th minute, it seemed almost certain Ronaldo would act to blast Al-Nassr to victory.
But surprisingly, the 38-year-old passed the blame to Anderson Talisca.
And as the Brazilian slid home from the spot, Ronaldo was the first man to happily run over to celebrate with him.
Fans claim that the former Manchester United striker allowed Talisca to take the penalty to support his bid for the Golden Boot.
One of them wrote: “Talisca runs for goldenboot and was currently the second top scorer until captain Ronaldo decided to let him take the penalty to take the first spot again. That’s my captain.”
A second tweeted: “Cristiano Ronaldo just had Talisca take a crucial penalty to complete Al Nassr’s comeback, Talisca is now just 1 goal behind the league’s top scorer.
“But I have to believe that Ronaldo is selfish and only cares about himself…”
A third gushed: “That was my nicest highlight of the game, it really shows how much cr7 cares about his teammates.”
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The 29-year-old’s attack was his 14th in 15 games this season.
He is second in the current Golden Boot standings, behind only Al-Ittihad’s Abderrazak Hamdallah, who has 15.
Al-Nassr had been down 1–0 earlier in the match through Abdulfattah Adam Ahmad Mohammed’s 26th-minute opener.
Ronaldo conjured up a brilliant equalizer in the 78th minute, scored his first free kick in THREE YEARS to make it 1-1.
Abha was reduced to ten men in 80 minutes for Talisca’s dramatic winner from the spot.
Al-Nassr follows with one point ahead of Al-Ittihad in the Saudi Pro League title race.
Al-Ittihad, led by former Tottenham boss Nuno Espirito Santo, won 5-1 at Al Fateh yesterday.
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