Ronaldo and Durán left out of AFC Champions League squad—what's the reason?
Lars Foster
Dailysports's expert
Translated by the editors
On February 16, Al Nassr will play their final AFC Champions League group-stage match against Iranian side Persepolis. However, Cristiano Ronaldo’s fans won’t be seeing him in action.
Details: The Al Nassr captain, along with recent signing Jhon Durán, has been left out of the squad for this match. According to All About Saudi, head coach Stefano Pioli decided to rest his star players, as the game holds no competitive significance for the team.
Another factor is the foreign player limit, which restricts the number of non-domestic players in the matchday squad to five.
Reminder: Al Nassr currently sits third in the AFC Champions League West Group with 16 points and had already secured a playoff spot before this match. Meanwhile, Persepolis is in ninth place with six points, making this game irrelevant to Pioli’s side in terms of qualification.
