Football Bet of the Day: Brace yourself for the return of Ronaldo

Tuesday's Football Bet of the Day, provided by Adrian Mills, produced a nice winner as Newcastle United's Alexander Isak struck in the 37th minute of his side's 2-0 victory at Arsenal in the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final tie to land the 9/5 on the Swede to score anytime.

Like Adrian, I'm looking to the goalscorer markets for Thursday's Football Bet of the Day, but I'm taking a slightly different angle by backing former Manchester United and Real Madrid superstar Cristiano Ronaldo to net twice for Al-Nassr in their Saudi Pro League game against Al-Akhdoud (17:00, DAZN) at the King Saud University Stadium in Riyadh. Read below to find out my reasons for backing a Ronaldo brace at 13/2.

Football Odds

A month-long mid-season break means there has been no Saudi Pro League football since December 7 but the division starts up on Thursday with three matches, starting with Al-Fateh v Al-Wehda and Al-Riyadh v Al-Khaleej before ending the evening with Al-Nassr v Al-Akhdoud which is where you will find the star names.

Al-Nassr have the likes of Sadio Mane, Marcelo Brozovic and Aymeric Laporte in their ranks but it's Ronaldo who takes up most of the headlines following a glittering career in Europe that saw the Portuguese star win five Ballons d'Or'.

Unsurprisingly, since taking his talents to the Gulf, the Madeira-born forward has sparkled, scoring 14 times in 16 SPL appearances during his first half-season before scooping the Golden Boot in 2023/24 with 35 goals in 31 league games.

After 13 games played, 12 of which Ronaldo has featured in, the 39-year-old has 10 strikes to his name, the same number as former Real Madrid teammate Karim Benzema, who now plies his trade at Al-Ittihad. However, both trail Al-Hilal's 12-goal centre-forward Aleksandar Mitrovic (12) in the top scorer charts, so Ronaldo will be targeting a big second half of the season in front of goal.

The Portugal captain certainly ended 2024 in the right way, bagging a brace in his final international game of the calendar year as Roberto Martinez's side beat Poland 5-1 in the Uefa Nations League before netting in four consecutive appearances for his club side.

Ronaldo opened the scoring in a 2-1 defeat to Al-Qadisiya before bagging braces in a 3-1 AFC Champions League win over Al-Gharafa and a 2-0 victory over Damac and bowing out of 2024 with a goal in Al-Nassr's 2-1 loss to Al-Ittihad.

Al-Nassr vs Al-Akhdoud Odds

That's three braces across his last five games for club and country and the Sporting Academy graduate will back himself to make it four in six on Thursday when Al-Akhdoud pitch up at King Saud University Stadium.

Najran-based Al-Akhdoud, who earned promotion to the SPL in 2023, lost both games against Al-Nassr last season, suffering a 3-0 defeat in Riyadh before going down 3-2 at home.

Ronaldo scored in both matches, notching twice at the King Saud University Stadium before having to settle for just the one at the Al-Akhdoud Club Stadium.

Al-Akhdoud beat Al-Wehda 3-2 last time out in the competition but that made it back-to-back games in which they had conceded twice following a 2-1 defeat at home to Al-Kholood on November 28. Stjepan Tomas' side have also conceded multiple goals in matches against Al-Ittihad (2-1 defeat), Al-Fateh (4-2 win), Damac (3-1 defeat) and Al-Hilal (3-0 defeat), with Georges-Kevin N'Koudou and Mitrovic scoring twice each for Damac and Al-Hilal respectively.

Ronaldo already has a career brace to his name against Al-Akhdoud and 13/5 looks a great price for him to add another one to his tally on Thursday.

Offers

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