For Cristiano Ronaldo, winning a first league title in Saudi Arabia isn't coming easy.

The Portugal superstar was a matter of seconds away from securing the victory needed to clinch the Saudi Pro League with Al-Nassr on Tuesday, with his team leading fierce rival Al-Hilal 1-0 in the eighth and final minute of stoppage time.

With Ronaldo looking nervous on the bench — the 41-year-old striker had been substituted by that point — and some Al-Nassr fans hardly able to watch, Al-Hilal sent a long throw-in into the area and Al-Nassr goalkeeper Bento, in an attempt to catch the ball, fumbled it backward and into his own net.

The match finished 1-1, the title race was still alive and Ronaldo looked distraught as he sat in the dugout, consoled by teammates.

“The dream is close,” Ronaldo wrote in a post to his more than 100 million followers on X after the match. “Heads up, we have one more step to take!”

Al-Nassr hasn't won the Saudi league since 2019, more than three years before Ronaldo joined the club in a game-changing signing for the country as it looked to become a major player in world soccer.

That drought is still likely to end, despite the derby drama on Tuesday.

Al-Nassr leads Al-Hilal by five points and will guarantee winning the league by beating relegation-threatened Damac at home in the final round on May 21.

Al-Hilal has two games remaining, the first against Neom on Saturday. Win that and the second-place team will be two points behind Al-Nassr heading into the final round.

By then, Ronaldo — the five-time world player of the year — might have won his first major trophy with Al-Nassr, which faces Japan’s Gamba Osaka in the Champions League Two final in Riyadh on Sunday.

After the club season finishes, Ronaldo will head to a sixth World Cup with Portugal — and is free to play in the team's first game after FIFA, in a rare move, deferred two games of a three-match ban for his red card in a qualifying game. He has said this will definitely be his last attempt at winning the biggest prize in soccer, but it remains unclear for how long he will continue playing.

Ronaldo still has one more year remaining on his deal with Al-Nassr and is closing in on 1,000 career goals.

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Referees at the World Cup are aware of the growing trend in the Premier League for grappling and crowding around goalkeepers at corner kicks and “will deal with this in a very good way,” FIFA experts warned Monday.

The issue of how match officials deal with jostling between players at set-pieces was brought into full focus on Sunday when West Ham was denied a stoppage-time equalizer against title-chasing Arsenal.

In what has been described as the most significant video review in Premier League history, it was adjudged that Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya was being impeded by the flailing arm of West Ham player Pablo as they competed for the ball at a corner during a chaotic penalty-area scene where players from both teams were grabbing and pulling each other.

On many other occasions, similar levels of physical contact have gone unpunished, with Premier League officials seemingly having a high tolerance before intervening in a season when English soccer has gone back to basics with its tactics.

Pascal Zuberbühler, the former Switzerland goalkeeper who is the co-ordinator for FIFA’s Technical Study Group at the upcoming World Cup, acknowledged the need to be on top of the issue of grappling at corners “from the beginning” of the tournament.

“This is a trend — yes, of course — but I’m sure for our World Cup, we have the best referees there and the referees will be a key part of this situation,” he said on a video call with reporters.

“It’s difficult for the referees because a little foul on the goalkeeper in between so many people around you, it’s not easy to see this. But I’m very, very sure we, at FIFA, have the best referees anyway and we will deal with this in a very good way.”

For many, it was ironic that Arsenal — which wound up beating West Ham 1-0 to stay on course for a first Premier League title since 2004 — benefited from the controversial call.

Under manager Mikel Arteta, the Gunners have become the most dangerous team in England at corners and free kicks, embracing a designated set-piece specialist coach in Nicolas Jover and setting up specific patterns in dead-ball situations to cause maximum chaos.

Gilberto Silva, a World Cup winner with Brazil in 2002 and a Premier League champion with Arsenal in 2004, is also in the FIFA technical group and said dominating set plays was a “very strong weapon” for his former team.

However, he added: “I’m not so sure if the World Cup’s going to be the same way because you don’t have so much time to prepare the team for this tournament.

“Of course it can be a weapon to be used, and they have to use this, but not as a main one.”

The Premier League will be sending dozens of players to the World Cup — being held from June 11-July 19 in the United States, Canada and Mexico — as well as two of a total of 52 referees, and they'll have to adapt to a different threshold than the one they’ve been under for the previous nine months.

West Ham unhappy as debate continues to swirl

The late VAR call at the West Ham-Arsenal game remained a source of great debate into Monday, given its ramifications.

Not only did it propel Arsenal closer to the title, it also plunged West Ham closer to what would be a costly relegation from the lucrative Premier League.

With two games remaining, West Ham is in third-to-last place — the final relegation spot in the 20-team league.

The BBC reported Monday that the Hammers were set to contact English soccer’s referees’ body to raise its concerns about the decision and request further explanation. There was no official comment from the club, though its players and manager Nuno Espirito Santo were unhappy after the game.

Nuno said match officials had become confused.

“Even the referees don’t know what is a foul and what is not a foul — it creates doubt,” he said.

“You look at every corner in the Premier League and something like this is happening, not just today, but on all the pitches. I am talking about the lack of consistency.”

Arteta praised the match officials –— on-field referee Chris Kavanagh and VAR official Darren England, neither of whom are going to the World Cup — for having the “clarity … to make the right call” under so much pressure.

“Because,” he said, “you’re talking about a moment that can decide the history, the course, of two massive clubs that they are fighting with their lives to achieve their objectives.”

Former Premier League assistant referee Darren Cann, who ran the line in the 2010 World Cup final, said on the BBC that England “stepped up to the plate, he made the right decision and it’s the biggest VAR call in Premier League history.”

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup