Prior to Al-Nassr’s AFC Champions League second leg against Saudi opponents, Cristiano Ronaldo shared his emotional state on Instagram.

Clearly at ease Two days before Al-Nassr is scheduled to play neighboring Saudi Arabian team Al-Feiha in the Asia’s Champions League quarterfinals this week, Ronaldo wrote, “good vibes,” as the caption for his post.

With a slim 1-0 aggregate lead from their away first leg last week, Ronaldo and company will be optimistic about moving forward when they play the second leg at home. Having been in the second tier as recently as 2021, Al-Feiha is not one of Saudi Arabia’s traditional giants and finished 11th out of 16 teams in the domestic league last season. Even though they were a struggling team in the Saudi Pro League, they had an incredible run to win the 2021/22 King’s Cup, which qualified them for the 2023–24 AFC Champions League. They then advanced past the group stage.

The only Saudi teams to win Asian club championships are Al-Hilal (1991, 2000, 2019, 2021) and Al-Ittihad (2004, 2005). Al-Nassr has never won the tournament; their best result came in 1995 as runners-up against South Korea’s Ilhwa Chunma, who is currently known as Seongnam FC.

 

The team’s main man, 39-year-old Ronaldo, has scored 30 goals in 31 games in all competitions, leading Al-Nassr to multiple trophy targets this season. With 14 games remaining, they won’t think that a seven-point deficit to Al-Hilal in the Saudi Pro League title race is insurmountable, especially because they are also into the King’s Cup semifinals and have a strong chance of making it to the final eight of the Champions League.