Joao Felix scored twice and created two more as Al Nassr hammered Pakhtakor 6-2 in Tashkent on Monday, proving in the most emphatic way possible that there is life in Ange Postecoglou's side beyond a rested Cristiano Ronaldo.
Ronaldo did not even travel to Uzbekistan. Postecoglou left his 41-year-old captain at home, along with Kingsley Coman and Mohamed Simakan, and explained the decision before kick-off in terms any manager of a veteran superstar would recognise.
"I decided to rest Ronaldo, Coman and Simakan, given the congestion of matches and the frequency of travel," Postecoglou said at his pre-match news conference, in quotes reported by USA TODAY. It was rest, not injury and not suspension — and by full-time in Tashkent, nobody was questioning it.
Felix Takes the Stage Ronaldo Vacated
Al Nassr needed barely a quarter of an hour to show they could cope. Abdullah Al-Hamdan opened the scoring on 15 minutes, finishing a move created by Felix, and two minutes later Felix had one of his own to make it 2-0.
The Portuguese forward struck again on 32 minutes, this time from a Sadio Mane pass, to put the visitors three clear. Pakhtakor briefly threatened a contest when Flamarion pulled one back four minutes later, assisted by Sherzod Nasrullaev, and the hosts went in at half-time trailing 3-1 with the game still, just about, alive.
It did not stay alive for long. Felix turned provider again eight minutes after the restart, setting up Abdulelah Al-Amri for the fourth, and when Abdulrahman Ghareeb added a fifth on 62 minutes the away end could start celebrating a rout. Dostonbek Khamdamov's 75th-minute reply was a consolation, and Angelo Borges completed the scoring four minutes later from Al-Hamdan's pass.
The AFC's own report described a side that "made it look easy" in brushing Pakhtakor aside, and the numbers underlined the point in a strange way: Pakhtakor actually had more of the ball, 51 per cent to 49, and more shots, 16 to 14. Al Nassr simply took their chances — eight efforts on target, six of them goals.
Mane Pulls the Strings
If Felix was the headline, Mane was the co-author. The Senegal forward provided the assist for Felix's second goal and for Ghareeb's fifth, a reminder that Al Nassr's supporting cast contains a former African Footballer of the Year who remains one of the most productive wide players in Asian football.
That depth is exactly what Postecoglou was protecting by resting Ronaldo. The Portuguese icon scored a hat-trick in the 5-3 league win over Al Kholood last Thursday to reach 985 career goals, 15 short of the 1,000 milestone no player has ever reached in official senior football. Every cameo in a game like this is a risk to that chase; every rest like this is an investment in it.
Felix, meanwhile, is building a season that no longer needs Ronaldo's shadow to be noticed. Two goals and two assists in a single Champions League Elite away game is a statement performance from a player whose European career never quite matched his talent — and who is now, in Saudi Arabia, producing the numbers his ability always promised. Ronaldo's greatness off the pitch has already been recognised with the B.O.A.T. award; nights like this show the team around him is worthy of the stage too.
So What Does It Mean?
The AFC confirmed this was Al Nassr's second straight win in the competition, a run that steadies a continental campaign that had started patchily, while Pakhtakor's miserable start continued — a fourth straight match without a win leaves the Uzbek champions in deep trouble in the West zone.
For Pakhtakor, the damage is structural as much as it is about one bad night. Conceding six at home, in a game where they had more possession and more shots, points to a defence that cannot survive at this level, and their next Elite fixture away to another Saudi powerhouse offers no relief.
For Al Nassr, the immediate focus swings back to domestic football and to Ronaldo. He is expected back for Friday's Saudi Pro League match against Al Hazem on November 6, with his club third in the table, two points behind leaders Al-Hilal. The 1,000-goal countdown resumes then — and after Monday, Postecoglou knows his team can win big without him, which makes resting him again an easier call, not a harder one.
Beyond the Final Whistle: this is what a functioning super-club looks like. The story was supposed to be Ronaldo's absence; instead Felix and Mane turned it into proof that Al Nassr are a team, not a one-man roadshow — and a rested Ronaldo, 15 goals from immortality, is now the most dangerous version of him for the run-in. Was Postecoglou right to leave his captain at home? Let us know what you think in the comment section.
