Cristiano Ronaldo said his heart was racing while converting a last-gasp penalty for Al Nassr in their controversial 2-1 win over Al Fayha in the Saudi Pro League on Saturday.
Ronaldo, 40, levelled the score in the 37th minute, before sealing the win in added time for Jorge Jesus's side, who top the league with 21 points from seven games.
“Today my heart beat a little bit faster than before,” Ronaldo told Thmanyah Sports. “But this is football, this is my life. Twenty-two years of this so I’m happy”.
The Portugal international is aiming to add the SPL title to his cabinet, saying he is focused on collective success.
“We are on the top of the classification but we need to carry on, the season is long, we have to go step by step, we are in a very good moment in the league.
“It's always good to score goals, I'm very happy to help the team win, for me the most important [thing] that we won, we are a team, so it doesn't matter [about] individual awards, what I want is to win the league”.
Ronaldo, who is still searching for his first domestic trophy with Al Nassr, has scored eight goals in seven matches this season.
Al Fayha took a surprise lead at King Saud University Stadium in Riyadh through Spanish forward Jason, but the league leaders levelled before the interval as Ronaldo finished off a slick move by converting Kingsley Coman's pass.
The controversy arrived deep in injury time when Al Nassr were awarded a highly debatable penalty. Initially, six minutes of stoppage time were added by the officials but more than 15 were played.
Eventually, and after a lengthy VAR check, Al Nassr were awarded a penalty following a seemingly routine aerial challenge between Abdulelah Al Amri and Mikel Villanueva. Ronaldo made no mistake as he reached 952 career goals – 178 of them being successful penalties.
Al Taawoun are second after their 2-0 win over Al Qadsiah. Waleed Al Ahmed and Angelo Fulgini struck in the second half to keep them within three points of Nassr.
Third-placed Al Hilal remain unbeaten with five wins and two draws from their seven games. They survived a late red card for Kalidou Koulibaly to register a 1-0 win over Al Shabab with Marcos Leonardo scoring the only goal midway through the first half.
Defending champions Al Ittihad scored twice in injury time to rescue an improbable 4-4 draw at Al Khaleej. Playing with 10 men from the 32nd minute after Fabinho's red card, Ittihad trailed 4-1 as late as the 86th minute. Mousa Diaby grabbed his second goal to make it 4-2 before Mario Mitaj and Faisel Al Ghamdi completed the comeback.
