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Ronaldo’s Return Boosts Al-Nassr’s Maiden Asian Champions League Title Hopes

Football - Saudi Pro League - Al Shabab v Al-Nassr - Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - February 25, 2024 Al-Nassr's Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates scoring their first goal. (Reuters)
Football - Saudi Pro League - Al Shabab v Al-Nassr - Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - February 25, 2024 Al-Nassr's Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates scoring their first goal. (Reuters)
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Ronaldo’s Return Boosts Al-Nassr’s Maiden Asian Champions League Title Hopes

Football - Saudi Pro League - Al Shabab v Al-Nassr - Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - February 25, 2024 Al-Nassr's Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates scoring their first goal. (Reuters)
Football - Saudi Pro League - Al Shabab v Al-Nassr - Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - February 25, 2024 Al-Nassr's Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates scoring their first goal. (Reuters)

Cristiano Ronaldo returns from suspension on Monday to try and save Al-Nassr’s season and guide the Saudi Arabian team closer to a first ever Asian Champions League title.

Last Thursday, the 39 year-old was banned for one game after making an offensive gesture during a Saudi Arabian league match four days earlier. At the end of a 3-2 win over Al-Shabab, video footage appeared to show Ronaldo cupping his ear and repeatedly thrusting his hand forward near his pelvis, in a gesture that seemed to be aimed at Al-Shabab fans.

The punishment meant that Ronaldo watched frustrated from the sidelines during Thursday’s domestic league game as Al-Nassr took the lead four times but ended with a 4-4 draw at home to bottom team Al-Hazm. The result leaves the club in second in the Saudi Pro League and nine points behind leader Al-Hilal.

“Ronaldo strengthens the team and ensures that the opponent respects you more but his absence had nothing to do with the result,” said Al-Nassr coach Luis Castro. “The fact is that we are conceding too many goals and the problem is not organizational but due to individual mistakes.”

“The league result will not affect our game in the Asian Champions League as we will be fully focused on that.”

The continental competition offers Al-Nassr the best chance of silverware this season and the team makes the short trip to take on Al-Ain of the United Arab Emirates, winner in 2003, in the first leg of the quarterfinal.

On Tuesday, there is an all-Saudi Arabia clash as Al-Hilal, with a record four continental titles, takes on Al-Ittihad, champion in 2004 and 2005.

Neymar is still missing for Al-Hilal, currently top of the Saudi Arabia league, while Al-Ittihad is waiting to see if star striker Karim Benzema recovers from a muscle injury.

The two teams met in the league on Friday. Former Chelsea midfielder N’Golo Kante put Ittihad ahead but Al-Hilal came back to win 3-1 to record a 25th straight win in all competitions.

“The players are playing with great confidence,” said Al-Hilal coach Jorge Jesus. “This is a good thing because we are facing important matches in a short period, starting with the Asian Champions League and a tough game against Al-Ittihad and we will have to be at our best.”

Al-Ittihad, the defending Saudi Arabian champion is now in fifth in the league and out of the domestic title race.

“We are moving in the right direction and the Asian Champions League quarterfinal is now the most important game of the season for us,” said Ittihad defender Ahmed Hegazy. “We know that it will be tough against Al-Hilal but this is a different game and we are focused on this.”

In the eastern zone, —the tournament is split into two geographic halves until the final — there is an all-South Korean clash as Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors takes on Ulsan HD. Both teams have won two titles each.

In the remaining fixture, Yokohama F. Marinos of Japan meets China’s Shandong Taishan on Wednesday.

The second legs are played the following week.

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Flotilla on Seine, Rain and Celine Dion Mark Start of Paris Olympics

Members of delegations are seen during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
Members of delegations are seen during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
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Flotilla on Seine, Rain and Celine Dion Mark Start of Paris Olympics

Members of delegations are seen during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
Members of delegations are seen during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on July 26, 2024. (AFP)

French President Emmanuel Macron declared the Olympic Games open on Friday after a soaking wet ceremony in which athletes were cheered by the crowd along the Seine, dancers took to the roofs of Paris and Lady Gaga sang a French cabaret song.

France's three-time Olympic gold medalists Marie-Jose Perec and Teddy Riner then lit the Olympic cauldron, suspended on a hot-air balloon, before Canada's Celine Dion sang Edith Piaf's "Hymn to Love", in her first public performance in years, drawing huge cheers from the crowd.

The 30-meter (98 ft) high balloon carrying a 7-meter diameter ring of fire took to the air and was hovering dozens of meters above the ground.

It will be in the air from sunset until 2 am local time every day, organizers said.

"We are so proud of this show, I'm so proud that sport and culture were celebrated in such a fantastic manner tonight, it was a first and the result was fantastic despite the rain," Paris 2024 organizing president Tony Estanguet told reporters.

A fleet of barges took the competitors on a 6 km-stretch of the river alongside some of the French capital's most famous landmarks, as performers recreated some of the sports to be showcased in the Games on floating platforms.

It was the first time that an opening ceremony has taken place outside a stadium, adding to the headaches for a vast security operation, just hours after a sabotage attack on the high-speed TGV rail network caused travel chaos across France.

"I invite everybody: dream with us. Like the Olympic athletes, be inspired with the joy that only sport can give us. Let us celebrate this Olympic spirit of living in peace," International Olympics Committee President Thomas Bach said as the ceremony came to an end at the foot of the Eiffel Tower.

More than 10,500 athletes will compete at the Olympics, 100 years since Paris last staged the Games. Competition started on Wednesday and the first of the 329 gold medals will be awarded on Saturday.

As the show started four hours earlier, a giant plume of blue, white and red smoke, resembling the French flag, was sent high above a bridge over the Seine as part of a show that included many postcard-like depictions of France, including a huge cancan line performed by Moulin Rouge dancers on the banks.

A more modern image of the country was on display when French-Malian pop star Aya Nakamura, the most-listened to French female singer in the world, sang some of her biggest hits, accompanied by the French Republican Guard's army choir.

Nakamura's performance drew some of the ceremony's biggest cheers. Rumors of her inclusion had sparked a row over French identity, with supporters saying she represented the vibrancy of modern-day France while her detractors said her music owes more to foreign influences than French.

POURING RAIN

While the celebration of French culture, fashion and history was warmly cheered by many of the 300,000 spectators lining the river, hundreds were seen leaving early as the rain fell.

"It was good other than the rain, it was nice, it was different, instead of being in a stadium being on the river, so that's always a good thing - interesting, unique," said Avid Pureval, 34, who came to the Games from Ohio.

"Once you're wet, it's fine," he said. Still, he was heading back to his hotel after the French boat passed, long before the ceremony ended.

"It would have been better with sun," said Josephine, from Paris, sitting beside her 9-year-old daughter and who paid 1,600 euros ($1,736) for her seat.

With many world leaders and VIPs present, the ceremony was protected by snipers on rooftops. The Seine's riverbed was swept for bombs, and Paris' airspace was closed.

Some 45,000 police and thousands of soldiers were deployed in a huge security operation in Paris for the ceremony. Armed police patrolled along the river in inflatable boats as the armada made its passage along the Seine.

WELCOMED IN TAHITI

A mix of French and international stars, including soccer great Zinedine Zidane, 14-times French Open champion Rafa Nadal, 23-times Grand Slam champion Serena Williams and three paralympic athletes were among the last torchbearers before the cauldron was lit.

It will blaze until the closing ceremony on Aug. 11.

At the start of the parade, applause erupted for the Greek boat - the first delegation, by tradition - and there were even bigger cheers for the boat that followed, carrying the refugees' team. The French, US and Ukrainian delegations also got loud cheers.

The two most decorated athletes in the Games' history, Michael Phelps and Martin Fourcade, unveiled the gold, silver and bronze medals.

At one point, there was a live crossover to the early morning welcome ceremony at the surfing venue, 16,000 km away in the Pacific island of Tahiti.

ISRAEL DELEGATION

France is at its highest level of security, though officials have repeatedly said there was no specific threat to the opening ceremony or the Games.

But since the last Games - the Winter Olympics held in Beijing in 2022 - wars have erupted in Ukraine and Gaza, providing a tense international backdrop.

Israeli competitors are being escorted by elite tactical units to and from events and are given 24-hour protection throughout the Olympics due to the war in Gaza, officials say.

The Israel delegation got some boos, but also a lot of cheers, as it sailed by spectators, Reuters reporters saw. Chants of "Palestine! Palestine! Palestine!" rose from the crowd as the boat passed.

Macron, who won a second mandate two years ago, had hoped the Olympics would cement his legacy. But his failed bet on a snap legislative election has weakened him and cast a shadow over his moment on the international stage.