Al-Nasr suffered its first defeat of the season thanks to two goals from Ivan Toni:

Jeddah, January 03: Thanks to two brilliant goals from England striker Ivan Toney, Al-Ahli Saudi defeated Al-Nasr 3-2 in the match played on Friday night at King Abdullah Sports City Stadium, Jeddah. This is Al-Nasr’s first defeat in the Saudi Pro League 2025-26.

From the beginning of the match, Al-Ahly took full advantage of Al-Nasr’s high defensive line. In the very first minute, Galeno’s shot hit the crossbar, making the home team’s intentions clear. In the seventh minute, Ivan Toni gave Al-Ahly the lead by heading the ball into the net on Galeno’s square pass.

Toni scored his second goal in the 20th minute, when he ran onto a pass from his own half and fired a powerful shot past Al-Nasr goalkeeper Nawaf Al-Aqidi to make the score 2–0.

However, Al-Nassr got a run of luck in the 30th minute when a relatively easy shot from Al-Ahly goalkeeper Abdulrahman Al-Sanabi went through Abdullah Al-Amri’s legs and into the goal. After this, just before halftime, Al-Amri leveled the score at 2-2 with a powerful header from Marcelo Brozovic’s corner.

Toney created another goal before halftime, but his shot hit the bottom of the post and both teams went into the break on equal footing.

Al-Ahly’s Merih Demirel scored the decisive goal in the second half. Ivan Toni expertly hooked Matheus Gonçalves’ free-kick behind, before Demiral fired a header from inside the six-yard box into the net.

After this, Al-Nasr maintained more possession of the ball, but could not create any clear chances to score an equalizing goal. The atmosphere became heated in the last moments of the match and one player each from both the teams was shown a red card. Al-Ahly’s Ali Mazrashi was shown off for slapping Joao Felix, while Al-Nassr’s Nawaf Boushal received a red card for a foul on the last defender.

Al-Nasr’s star player Cristiano Ronaldo had a lackluster performance. His only notable effort throughout the 90 minutes was a header in the first half, which went wide of the target.

With this defeat, Al-Nasr has given its rivals Al-Hilal the chance to take the top spot in the title race, provided it wins against Damac on January 4. At the same time, Al-Ahli Saudi remains in fourth place despite this victory, but it has reduced the points difference from Al-Taawoon to three.