Sadio Mane and Cristiano Ronaldo were on target as Al-Nassr struck an early blow in the Saudi Pro League title race with a deserved 2-0 win at Al-Ittihad.

Defending champions Al-Ittihad beat Al-Nassr home and away last season and got the better of Al-Nassr in the Saudi Super Cup final.

Karim Benzema returned to the Al-Ittihad side after missing three matches due to injury, but he could not inspire the hosts to victory in Jeddah.

Instead it was former Real Madrid team-mate Ronaldo was left celebrating after he followed up Mane’s stunning ninth-minute opener with a 35th-minute header to send Al-Nassr top of the table.

Al-Ittihad v Al-Nassr

Amid a raucous atmosphere, the game began in frantic fashion, with both sides failing to make the most of promising openings.

But Mane took his first clear-cut chance in spectacular fashion, maintaining his composure to lash home a superb volley from Kingsley Coman’s right-wing cross.

Al-Nassr continued in the ascendancy after the opener, Ronaldo wasting a gilt-edged chance when he headed wide from close range before then breaking free down the left, only to fire into the side-netting.

Paulo Bento was tested by Steven Bergwijn after an Al-Ittihad break, but the visitors continued to create the better opportunities, Joao Felix blazing over from point-blank range from Pascal Simikan’s flick-on.

But Ronaldo made no mistake when Mane lifted a perfectly weighted left-wing cross into the box, the Portugal talisman making no mistake with a powerful header beyond a helpless Predrag Rajkovic.

Mane was almost the provider for a third, but Felix was again the provider of a glaring miss after more good work from his Senegalese team-mate.

Things got worse for Al-Ittihad in first-half stoppage time, with midfielder Houssem Aouar forced off through injury.

Ronaldo was denied by Rajkovic shortly after the second-half restart as Al-Nassr sought to put the game to bed, with Coman then blazing over at the far post before Ronaldo inexplicably missed the target with an open goal at his mercy.

Yet Al-Ittihad struggled to punish that profligacy, with Benzema cutting a peripheral figure until he was brilliantly thwarted by Bento following superb work on the turn from the former France striker.

And there was to be no way through for the hosts, who comfortably saw out a victory that could and probably should have been more emphatic.