{"id":63507,"date":"2024-04-02T17:31:43","date_gmt":"2024-04-02T17:31:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/positive-results-boost-pitsos-battling-abha-but-they-face-ronaldos-al-nassr-next"},"modified":"2024-04-02T18:10:12","modified_gmt":"2024-04-02T18:10:12","slug":"positive-results-boost-pitsos-battling-abha-but-they-face-ronaldos-al-nassr-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/positive-results-boost-pitsos-battling-abha-but-they-face-ronaldos-al-nassr-next","title":{"rendered":"Positive results boost Pitso\u2019s battling Abha, but they face Ronaldo\u2019s Al-Nassr next"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>Pitso Mosimane&#8217;s Abha Club drew 1-1 away against Al Riyadh on Saturday to continue a string of recent positive results in their quest for Saudi Pro League (SPL) survival, but they next face Cristiano Ronaldo&#8217;s second-placed Al-Nassr on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n<p>Abha host Al-Nassr at their Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Sports City Stadium in the 1-million population Abha, capital of the mountainous Asir region (the city sits at an altitude of 2,270m above sea level, 520m higher than Johannesburg&#8217;s 1,750m) in southwest Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n<p>At 39, Ronaldo&#8217;s skills remain formidable in the more modest surrounds of the SPL. He has scored 33 goals in 34 league and cup games in 2023-24 and 47 in 53 games in total since signing for the Saudi club in January 2023. The Portugal and former Real Madrid, Manchester United and Juventus great helped steer Al-Nassr to the 2023 Arab Club Champions Cup title.<\/p>\n<p>The impressive statistics have not helped them to the league title, though, where Al-Nassr ended second to Al-Ittihad by five points in 2022-23 and are 12 points behind Al-Hilal this campaign.With a squad also boasting Sadio Mane\u0301 (13 goals in 35 league and cup games this season), Al-Nassr will look for a win against Abha to restore their fading league title hopes with nine matches to go.<\/p>\n<p>It will be a tough match for Mosimane\u2019s club, who also have nine games left, to earn a result from, and their recent positive trend might have to take a pause on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n<p>When Mosimane and his South African technical staff joined Abha on January 11, they were in 17th position on 14 points in the 18-team league, with four wins and two draws from 19 games and the worst goal difference of -30.<\/p>\n<p>Abha had not won in seven games, six of those defeats. In six matches Mosimane has steered them to two wins, two draws and two defeats, accumulating eight points.<\/p>\n<p>The club remain in the relegation zone and are also in second-last place but are level on 22 points with third-last Al Tai, two behind 15th-placed Al Akhdoud and three behind Al Riyadh in 15th position and on a positive trajectory in terms of results.<\/p>\n<p>That trajectory might not continue against Al-Nassr, where Mosimane&#8217;s team would probably be happy with a point at home though they would love to inflict a fifth defeat on Ronaldo&#8217;s team.<\/p>\n<p>Then eight huge fixtures remain in the relegation battle.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\">South-Africa<\/a> Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. Pitso Mosimane&#8217;s Abha Club drew 1-1 away against Al Riyadh on Saturday to continue a string of recent positive results in their quest for Saudi Pro League (SPL) survival, but they next face Cristiano Ronaldo&#8217;s second-placed Al-Nassr on Tuesday night. Abha host Al-Nassr at their Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Sports City Stadium [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":63506,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[274,315,275],"class_list":["post-63507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Positive results boost Pitso\u2019s battling Abha, but they face Ronaldo\u2019s Al-Nassr next - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Pitso Mosimane&#039;s Abha Club drew 1-1 away against Al Riyadh on Saturday to continue a string of recent positive results i ...\" 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