In Al Nassr’s 5-2 victory over Al Shabab in the King’s Cup quarterfinals, Ronaldo scored a goal in the 74th minute to help bring the home team to the semi-finals. He also reached 40 goals for Al Nassr and 50 goals in 2023.

In the 74th minute, Ronaldo received the ball at the edge of the left penalty area, passed it to Otavio and then ran inside. Otavio caught the ball and passed it down to the Al Nassr captain to break the offside trap and shoot one-touch to the far corner in a face-to-face position, increasing the score to 4-1. Ronaldo intended to jump and twirl for joy, but after seeing the reserve players come near the corner to share in the joy, he did not jump but ran to hug his teammates.

Since the beginning of the year, Ronaldo has played 56 matches, scored 50 goals and assisted 14 times, leading the scoring list in 2023, with one goal better than Harry Kane and Erling Haaland. He scored 40 goals and assisted 12 times in 47 matches for Al Nassr, the rest were achievements with Portugal. The 38-year-old superstar scored 12 goals from penalties, three goals from free kicks from the wall, and six long-range goals. He can still improve this achievement, as Al Nassr still plays three more matches until the end of the year.

This is the first time since 2017 that Ronaldo has reached 50 goals in a year. Previously, the Portuguese captain reached this milestone seven years in a row, from 2011 to 2017. His best achievement is 69 goals in 2013 for Real Madrid and the team. CR7 also raised his career stats to 869 goals, a football record.

Moments after scoring, Ronaldo pointed to his ear to respond to Al Shabab fans. After each situation where he missed an opportunity, the home audience chanted Lionel Messi’s name. At one point, captain Al Nassr waved his hand in a gesture as if he wanted them to scream louder. Messi has been Ronaldo’s big rival for about 15 years, when both took turns winning the Golden Ball. The Argentine superstar also holds the record of scoring 91 goals in 2012.

While Messi is resting in Morocco because the season in the US has ended, Ronaldo continues to work in Saudi Arabia. His goal on the evening of December 11 did not have much impact on the outcome of the match, when Al Nassr with a cast of stars from Europe defeated their opponents 5-2 to enter the semi-finals.

Al Shabab is in the same city as Al Nassr, owning three players who have impressed in Europe: Ever Banega, Romain Saiss and Yannick Carrasco. In addition, they also had Korean goalkeeper Kim Seung-gyu, and he pushed Ronaldo’s free kick into the top corner in the 13th minute.

King Cup is like the Saudi Arabian National Cup, consisting of 24 knockout teams. Al Nassr beat Ohod 5-1 in the round of 1/16, before defeating Al-Ettifaq 1-0 in the round of 1/8. One of the opponents Ronaldo and his teammates can meet in the semi-finals is defending champion Al Hilal.