Despite missing the competition’s leading scorer Anderson Talisca, Al Nassr were pushing for an early opener when Cristiano Ronaldo went down in the area under a challenge from Soroush Rafiei but the prospect of a penalty was ruled out following a VAR check.

Aymeric Laporte sent his weak header into the arms of Alireza Beiranvand a quarter of an hour into the game while moments later Al Nassr were reduced to 10 men when Lajami was shown the red card for his reckless studs-up challenge on Milad Sarlak.