Refereeing expert says Ronaldo was denied a penalty in Al-Nassr’s dramatic comeback

Al-Nassr forward Cristiano Ronaldo should have been awarded a penalty, while goalkeeper Bento Matheus was correctly sent off despite a procedural error in the free-kick that led to his dismissal, according to refereeing analyst Mohamed Kamal Risha.

Al-Nassr recovered from two goals down to beat hosts Al-Ettifaq 3-2 in a dramatic Saudi Roshn League match, despite playing with 10 men from the 12th minute. The result came after a difficult contest in which Al-Nassr were forced to respond to the early dismissal of their Brazilian goalkeeper before producing a remarkable second-half comeback to secure all three points.

Risha, an Egyptian refereeing analyst for the newspaper Al-Riyadiyah, reviewed the key decisions from the match and identified an error in the way the free-kick leading to Bento’s red card was taken.

The referee, Mohammed Al-Hoish, awarded Al-Ettifaq a free-kick after a foul by Al-Nassr left-back Salem Al-Najdi. Rayan Messi took the set-piece quickly, sending the ball towards team-mate Moussa Dembele, who had moved beyond the Al-Nassr defence and was racing through on goal.

Bento came out of his area and brought Dembele down near the edge of the penalty area. Al-Hoish showed the goalkeeper a straight red card in the 12th minute for denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity.

Risha said the referee should have stopped play before allowing the free-kick to be taken.

“If Al-Hoish had stopped play to show Najdi a yellow card, the Al-Ettifaq player would not have been allowed to restart the game quickly,” Risha said. “But the referee did not do so, meaning Messi was entitled to take the free-kick immediately towards his team-mate Dembele.”

However, Risha regarded the execution of the free-kick as the key procedural mistake.

“The error was in the way the Al-Ettifaq player took the free-kick while the ball was moving,” he added. “The ball should have been stationary before the restart, and the referee should have paid attention to that.”

Risha also clarified that the Video Assistant Referee could not intervene over that particular issue.

“The VAR room does not have the authority to intervene in such procedural offences,” he said. “But the red-card decision was correct because Bento denied an Al-Ettifaq player an obvious goalscoring opportunity.”

The analyst then examined another incident from the 38th minute, this time inside Al-Ettifaq’s penalty area. He said Al-Ettifaq goalkeeper Turki Al-Jogesh committed an infringement against Al-Nassr captain Cristiano Ronaldo as the pair contested a cross from a corner.

Risha said an Al-Ettifaq defender reached the ball first and headed it away, while the goalkeeper failed to make contact with the cross before colliding with Ronaldo and bringing him down.

“The Al-Ettifaq defender succeeded in reaching the cross and cleared it with his head, while the goalkeeper’s attempt failed and he then collided with Ronaldo and knocked him down,” Risha said. “I believe the goalkeeper was negligent, and the VAR should have called the referee to award a penalty.”