Al-Nassr will be looking to return to winning ways in the Saudi Pro League this week when they make the short trip to the Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium to face Al Riyadh on Friday.
Both these sides played out draws in their last top-flight fixtures and are aiming to avoid a third consecutive league match without a victory.
Match preview
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Fair to say, Al Riyadh have been one of the most improved sides in the Saudi Pro League this season, having finished last season down in 14th place and just three points above the dotted line.
In just nine games this season, they have already recorded half as many wins as they did across the entire last term, and a win here could see them end the weekend in the top five of the league standings.
Notably, of the three defeats Riyadh have conceded in the league campaign, two of them were against high-flyers Al-Hilal and Al Ittihad, and the latter followed two very impressive victories over Al-Qadsiah and Al Okhdood.
However, the one area new boss Sabri Lamouchi will be looking to improve is his side's defensive numbers, as they have already conceded 14 goals this season, which is the most of any side in the top half of the table.
The last time these sides met, Al Riyadh managed to take a point from the match with a 2-2 draw back in May, though they have failed to beat this opponent in their last four attempts (W0 1 L3).
Meanwhile, after bowing out of the King's Cup with a disappointing 1-0 loss to Al Taawoun, Al-Nassr managed to hold rivals Al-Hilal to a 1-1 draw before thumping Al Ain 5-1 in the AFC Champions League in midweek.
Talisca opened and closed the scoring for Al-Alami in their last match, and has now racked up eight goals this season, six of which have come in the league which puts him level with Cristiano Ronaldo.
The Portuguese superstar also got on the scoresheet in midweek to take his goals tally to 10 for this season, but he has now failed to score from open play in his last six league matches, with each of his three goals in that time coming from the penalty spot.
Since arriving in the Middle East in mid-September, Stefano Pioli has posted a record of four wins and two draws in his first six matches in charge, but while his side are still unbeaten this season, they are trailing second place by five points, owing to four draws in their nine games to date.
Still, with 20 goals scored and only 8 conceded, the Knights of Najd are clear favourites in this match and a win here will give them huge momentum ahead of their favourable two-match home stand against Al-Qadsiah and Damac following the international break.
Team News
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The hosts will remain without the services of Enzo Roco for this match, with the centre-back still on the road to recovery from a serious knee injury sustained at the back end of last season.
Faiz Selemani contributed to both his side's goals against Damac in the last match and will almost certainly keep his place at wing-back, while Bernard Mensah will provide the creative spark from the middle of the park.
Al-Nassr also have just one player sidelined through injury at present in the form of Sami Al-Najei, who has now been ruled out for the remainder of the season having undergone cruciate ligament surgery.
As mentioned, Talisca has been central to everything positive Al-Alami have done in recent weeks and will form part of the three-man attack alongside CR7 and Sadio Mane.
Al Riyadh possible starting lineup:
Borjan; Selemani, Tambakti, Barbet, Khaibari; Al Subiani, Toze, Kal, Mensah; Bayesh, Al-Aqel
Al-Nassr possible starting lineup:
Bento; Al Ghanam, Simakan, Laporte, Boushal; Brozovic, Al-Khaibari; Talisca, Otavio, Mane; Ronaldo
We say: Al Riyadh 1-2 Al-Nassr
While Al Riyadh have been very impressive this season, Al-Nassr would have taken a huge confidence boost from their draw against Al-Hilal last week, and we feel they will carry that momentum into this match en route to a victory.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Devesh Jaganath
