Al-Nasr vs Al-Fateh: Can Ronaldo's team handle the underdog?

On Sunday, January 26, the 17th round match of the Saudi Arabian Championship will take place at the Al-Awal Stadium in Riyadh between the teams Al-Nasr and Al-Fateh.

• Expert Predictions Analysis
• Al-Nasr vs Al-Fateh facts
• Odds
• Game Totals Prediction

Our Expert Predictions & Analysis on Al-Nasr vs Al-Fateh

Al-Nasr

Cristiano Ronaldo and company won the last round – on the field of the combative Al-Khaleej with a score of 3:1. Moreover, three points for Al-Nasr were achieved with great difficulty – the hosts and their fans saw a 1:1 draw on the scoreboard in the 80th minute, but in the remaining time the favorite still managed to bring things to a triumph. The main star also scored a double – and Ronaldo scored both goals from play, which is a rarity for Cristiano in recent weeks. Usually, scoring strikes without realized 11-meter kicks is more difficult for him.

Despite the victory, Al-Nasr has not yet been able to rise into the top three. The gap from sensational Al-Qadisiya is 2 points, and from the leaders - Al-Hilal and Al-Ittihad, Stefano Pioli's charges are separated by the same 11 points as before.

Let's note the long series without "dry" matches in defense for Al-Nasr, which has been going on since the beginning of December. Five opponents in a row have already hit the gates of the "yellow-blues".

Al-Fateh

The worst team of the season so far – Al-Fateh has 9 points in 16 matches and is in the last 18th place in the table. At the same time, the team, led by Portuguese specialist Jose Gomes, achieved local success in the last round – for the first time in almost 5 months they won. The victim of the enraged outsider, who had lost 0:9 to the champion Al-Hilal before that, was the rather strong Damak.

Al-Fateh beat their opponent from the TOP-10 of the table in a rather "Hollywood-like" manner, losing 0:1 in the 77th minute, but managing to score two goals in the 78th and 90+20th. Yes, exactly in the "plus twenty", because the referee was forced to compensate for a lot of minutes due to the large number of pauses. And another interesting detail - both goals of Al-Fateh were scored from penalties.

But for now, as noted above, this has become only a local success for Gomes’ team – they are 5 points away from the saving 15th place in the table, and it will be very difficult to win back even one of them in the match with Al-Nasr.

Al-Nasr vs Al-Fateh facts

• Al Nasr have played for 'both teams to score' in their last 5 games of the season
• Al-Fateh have lost 10 of their last 12 away league matches (with 2 draws and 0 wins)
• In 5 consecutive away matches, Al-Fateh conceded at least 2 goals (and in one case – 9!)

Odds from download 1xbet

In the bookmaker 1xbet, the absolute favorite of this match is the Al-Nasr team, on whose victory you can bet with a coefficient of 1.09. More risky football fans can use 1xbet freebets to bet on a draw with a coefficient of 11.05, or on the victory of Al-Fateh with a coefficient of 15.50. Download 1xbet to your phone and place a bet on the favorite!

Game Totals Prediction

It's time for Al-Nasr to play a clean sheet in defense. The opponent is suitable, and even the fact that star defender Aymeric Laporte may miss the second match in a row due to family problems should not prevent the favorite from protecting their goal from the encroachments of the main outsider of the season at the moment. The odds that Al-Fateh will not score (that is, the individual total of less than 0.5 guests) are quite decent - 1.82. Of course, you can also play the option "at least one will not score" for 1.78, but we all understand that this very "one" is the visiting team.