Al-Nassr vs FC Goa: Midfield woes, lack of competitive football and other talking points

FC Goa succumbed to four consecutive defeats in the AFC Champions League Two.

FC Goa suffered a dismal 4-0 defeat to Al-Nassr to lose their fourth straight game in the group stages of the 2025-26 AFC Champions League Two campaign. Unlike the game at the Fatorda Stadium, the Gaurs lacked the spirited nature and were unable to put the Saudi Pro League giants under any pressure in their own backyard.

Saudi winger Abdulrahman Ghareeb scored a brace to put his side 2-0 ahead, before Mohammed Maran also scored one. It was also Al-Nassr’s super-sub Joao Felix who capped off a dominant win for his side with a stylish overhead kick goal after coming on, sealing a comfortable win that more or less books Al-Nassr’s place in the knockout rounds of the AFC Champions League Two.

For FC Goa, this was another learning curve as they were humbled by the Saudi heavyweights and failed to even come close to getting anything out of this game. Here we look at the talking points from this game.

4. Lack of driving figure in midfield comes back to haunt FC Goa

Even though Manolo Marquez seemingly piled up his FC Goa midfield line with a lot of bodies, there wasn’t really any inspired leader figure in those areas. Even though the Gaurs did not have much of the ball possession, they failed to get anything done in the little time that they did have the ball.

Whenever they recovered possession, the FC Goa players were mostly content with passing it to their backline and slowly working their way through the build-up play. There wasn’t any player in the midfield who was willingly looking to take hold of the possession and make some driving runs past the Al-Nassr players.

As a result, FC Goa were forced to slowly pass the ball behind, and this nullified their counter-attacking capability in the match as well. Neither Dezan Drazic nor Iker Guarrotxena was able to act as threatening figures in the midfield, and Borja Herrera failed to add positive energy to this squad either.

3. FC Goa’s inexperienced full-backs undo their defensive shape

Manolo Marquez clearly wanted his FC Goa side to keep a sturdy defensive shape and be a stubborn unit that would frustrate the hosts with their defensive qualities.

To their credit, FC Goa were able to defend relatively well inside the box for the majority of the ball, with the centre-backs often coming up with vital clearances to ruin the Saudi side’s flow.

However, Al-Nassr quickly realised that FC Goa’s weaknesses were actually through the wide areas, and they constantly started creating moves through those channels.

Neither Boris Singh nor Aakash Sangwan were particularly effective with their defending, as they failed to allow some crucial passes from being made into the final third. Singh had a poor game, as he was guilty of failing to mark crucial Al-Nassr attacking players in the key moments and failing to create anything for his side either.

Also Read: AFC Champions League Two Points Table: Updated Standings after FC Goa’s 4-0 defeat against Al Nassr

2. Manolo Marquez’s defence-first approach stops FC Goa from troubling Al-Nassr

Even though FC Goa were able to trouble the Al-Nassr players with a spirited performance at the Fatorda Stadium, they were not really able to replicate their heroics in the reverse fixture. Manolo Marquez opted to go for a pretty defensive starting XI, with the Spaniard opting for a five-man backline to add more steel to their shape and stop the opposition players from troubling them.

However, Marquez’s emphasis on strong defensive work from his side ended up hurting those players who wanted to take the fight to Al-Nassr. He ended up hurting FC Goa by making them have such a defensive mindset and not being able to motivate them to be threatening enough on the transitions or counterattacks.

Being so deep into their half wasn’t really warranted either, considering Al-Nassr rested the majority of their key players and only started with one foreign player (Wesley). The heavy-defensive shape from FC Goa neutralised their own attacking prospect and held them back from taking the fight to the hosts.

1. Clinical Al-Nassr show the importance of regular league football

The reason for Al-Nassr being able to play on a much higher level than FC Goa wasn’t just because of the difference in players, but also because of fitness. Al-Nassr are now a well-oiled team under Jorge Jesus and are regularly playing competitive league matches under him in the Saudi Pro League, too.

The weekly league matches in Saudi Arabia have helped the Al-Nassr players, even those who are mostly used as substitutes, to acquire a much higher level of match fitness. At the end of the day, the FC Goa players just aren’t energised, prepared, or well-drilled as the Al-Nassr players were.

The Al-Nassr players were quick, decisive and precise with their work on the pitch, helped by lengthy training under Jorge Jesus and also testing out his tactics in multiple league games. The FC Goa players, however, just didn’t get enough regular competitive playing time before the start of the AFC Champions League Two, as the Indian Super League (ISL) season has not started yet.

As a result, the FC Goa players didn’t get to play as many challenging matches as is needed for players to raise their sharpness levels on the pitch. Al-Nassr were at their clinical best in the FC Goa clash, but they also showed how important regular playing time at the highest league level can be for such teams.

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