Ronaldo sobs after Al-Nassr loses to Al Hilal in the Saudi King's Cup final on penalties.

After his Al-Nassr club lost the King's Cup final to Al-Hilal on Friday, Cristiano Ronaldo sobbed as he left the field, capping a second consecutive Saudi Arabian season without winning any significant hardware.

Al-Hilal prevailed 5-4 in a penalty shootout to settle a 1-1 match that went into overtime in Jeddah. At King Abdullah Sports City, Ronaldo—who signed with Al-Nassr in December 2022—fell to the ground in anguish and was comforted by teammates.

Al-Nassr finished second in the Saudi Pro League, 14 points behind Al-Hilal, and the loss occurred just four days after the season concluded. When Ronaldo scored twice to set a new league record of 35 goals in a season, there was some solace.

This time, after a furious match that witnessed two goals and three red cards, there was no such consolation.

After seven minutes, Aleksandar Mitrovic headed the Al-Hilal goal. When goalkeeper David Ospina, previously of Arsenal and Napoli, was sent off for handling the ball beyond the area early in the second half, things grew worse for Al-Nassr.

After 86 minutes, Ali Al-Bulaihi was sent off for what appeared to be a headbutt on Sami Al-Najei, reducing Al-Hilal to 10 men as well.

Ayman Yahya headed Al-Nassr level seconds later.

 

Following a second yellow card for Chelsea signee Kalidou Koulibaly in the summer, Al-Hilal had another defender sent off in the ninetieth minute.

Ronaldo, who had earlier struck the bar with an incredible overhead kick, scored from his penalty, but all he could do was watch as Bounou, the hero of Morocco's run to the 2022 World Cup quarterfinals, made two saves: one from Ali Al-Hassan and the other from Al-Nemer.

Hilal won the King's Cup for the eleventh time thanks to the saves, but Ronaldo and his squad will have to wait until the following year.