Riyadh, Saudi Arabia — In a surprising turn of events, Cristiano Ronaldo missed a crucial penalty in stoppage time, leading to Al-Nassr’s elimination from the King’s Cup after suffering a 1-0 defeat to Al-Taawoun on Tuesday.

The celebrated five-time Ballon D’Or recipient has been seeking a major trophy since joining Al-Nassr nearly two years ago. In this round-of-16 clash of Saudi Arabia’s top knockout tournament, Al-Taawoun managed to secure the lead with a header from Waleed Al-Ahmad during the last 20 minutes of the match. The situation took a dramatic twist when Al-Ahmad was called for a foul within the penalty area in the dying moments of the match.

Despite having successfully converted all 18 penalties prior to this match, Ronaldo’s shot soared over the crossbar, leaving the home crowd of 14,519 in disbelief.

This defeat marks the first loss for Stefano Pioli, who took over as head coach in September, succeeding Luis Castro. Al-Nassr still has opportunities to compete for silverware this season; however, they currently find themselves six points adrift of league leaders Al-Hilal after eight matches, and they have garnered only seven points from their first three group games in the Asian Champions League.

“We played technically well, but we just couldn’t secure the win,” Pioli remarked after the match. “The disappointment of being eliminated from the cup is palpable. However, we still have two trophies to aim for, and we intend to give our utmost efforts towards achieving them.”