Saudi Pro League action is set to resume after the month-long December break this week with Al-Nassr taking on Al Okhdood at Al-Awwal Park on Thursday evening.
A poor end to 2024 saw the hosts slip to fourth place in the league standings, while the visitors pulled three points clear of the drop with a victory in their last league game of the year.
Match preview
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Al-Nassr will be looking to start 2025 positively after suffering defeats to Al-Qadsiah and title challengers Al Ittihad in two of their final three games ahead of the league break last month.
Against their PIF-owned rivals, Karim Benzema opened the scoring and Cristiano Ronaldo levelled proceedings two minutes later for Al-Alami, but it was Steven Bergwijn who got the winner for the People's Club in stoppage time.
With those goals, the former Real Madrid strike partners took their league goal tallies for the season to 10, two behind Al-Hilal's Aleksandar Mitrovic, who currently leads the race for the Golden Boot.
Those results also saw the gap in the league standings between the Knights of Najd and the Blue Waves widen to 11 points, while a defeat to Al Saad on matchday six in the AFC Champions League Elite forced them into third place in Group B.
However, Stefano Pioli's side are unsurprisingly massively fancied to return to winning ways this week, having beaten and scored three goals both home and away against their upcoming opponents last season.
Meanwhile, Al Okhdood survived the drop by the slenderest of margins last season and look likely to battle at the bottom end of the table again this term unless they can find major improvement in the New Year.
The Najran-based outfit have managed just 12 points in 13 games to date but pulled off an excellent 3-2 victory over fellow relegation candidates Al Wehda on the final matchday of 2024 to give themselves a three-point cushion above the dotted line.
However, delivering consistent results has not been easy for Stjepan Tomas's side, as they have never managed to win back-to-back league games since earning promotion to the top flight.
The one positive for the visitors, though, is they have fared better on the road than on their home patch over the last few months, having taken seven points from the last 12 on offer (W2 D1 L1).
Team News
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Al-Nassr suffered a fairly significant blow during the break, with Abdullah Al-Khaibari sustaining a muscle tear while with the national team, which is expected to keep him sidelined for up to a month.
Al-Khaibari will join longer-term absentees Sami Al-Najei (cruciate ligament) and Ayman Yahya (leg) on the sidelines this week, while Ronaldo is also listed as a doubt owing to an abdominal problem.
For the visitors, Cameroon international Christian Bassogog ended the year strongly, netting three goals in his last five matches, and he should continue to lead the line here alongside Ibrahima Kone.
Al Okhdood have a fully fit squad for the trip to Riyadh this week, and given the impressive performance they delivered last time out, it would not come as a huge surprise if Tomas fielded an unchanged 11.
Al-Nassr possible starting lineup:
Bento; Al Ghanam, Simakan, Laporte, Boushal; Al-Amri, Brozovic; Angelo, Otavio, Mane; Al-Shehri
Al Okhdood possible starting lineup:
Vitor; Khamis, Asiri, Alyami, Ferreira; Pedroza, Al-Muwallad, Petros, Godwin; Bassogog, Kone
We say: Al-Nassr 3-1 Al Okhdood
While Al-Nassr could be without the services of their talisman and skipper this weekend, they still have more than enough firepower in reserve, and we feel they should secure a fairly straightforward victory in this match.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Devesh Jaganath
