The former Liverpool captain struggled, but he wasn’t the only one as they overcame Al-Nasr in the Saudi Pro League.

Jordan Henderson was sitting on his haunches. With everything he had, he gave. The new talisman of Al-Ettifaq, a former captain of Liverpool, had gone above and beyond for his team. With the small exception that his team was trailing 1-0 and there was still an hour to go, it was the kind of moment that had previously helped to cement Henderson’s fame.

The stadium was currently 34.6°C, and the humidity level was high enough to hydrate a bag of instant noodles. This is clearly a huge cautionary warning. Even though Henderson played in the swelteringest football game he had ever played in, all it took was one recovery sprint, and even that one wasn’t run at full speed. Additionally, the Englishman wasn’t by himself.

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One of the challenges the Saudi Pro League faces in becoming the world’s fledgling football league may be found right here, in this game. The headquarters of Aramco, the country’s dominant petrochemical company, are located in Dammam, a city on the eastern coast of Saudi Arabia. As the world entered the anthropocene age, Aramco earned the biggest corporate earnings in history. It is important because of this. Dammam is currently experiencing temperatures that make playing football a little bit too hot.

In Dammam, there is now a British branch of the Saudi Pro League. Along with Henderson, Steven Gerrard, the manager of Al-Ettifaq, and Scottish center-back Jack Hendry, who arrived in Dammam after playing for Wigan, Celtic, and most recently Club Brugge, are also present. French attacker Moussa Dembélé, another ex-Celtic player, is also a member of the squad.

This game was supposed to pit the British team against Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr because they were in town. Even though Ronaldo won the Arab Champions Cup, his 31st career victory, he suffered an injury on Saturday night. The Al-Nassr manager Luis Castro virtually changed his whole starting lineup because he chose not to travel with the Riyadh team. Only Sadio Mané, Henderson’s former friend, was still present among the major players signed in the summer to play alongside Ronaldo.

Undoubtedly disappointed would have been the numerous camera crews that were present at the game (many of them were there on a brief loan from Premier League Productions). By this time, the stadium was about half full, with the majority of the attendees cheering for Al-Nassr (something the enterprising local youngsters had probably anticipated, as they were solely selling goods in the colors of yellow and blue outside the stadium).

After Mané gave the visitors the lead in the third minute, Al-Ettifaq had to get ready for a fight. It was a move that began outside of Al-Nassr’s own box and, following a series of deflections, made its way into the Al-Ettifaq region. With a clever overlapping run there, Ali Alhassan managed to elude Henderson and cross for Mané to score.

Al-Ettifaq’s half only went poorly from that point on since it lacked direction and many players, including Henderson, were playing slowly. The many game stoppage brought on by injuries, which gave players a chance to hydrate, only served to exacerbate the lack of unity. Only in the first half were there four water breaks taken.

You don’t really understand that type of heat until you actually come and work in these conditions, Gerrard said following the game. The weather in many parts of the world is displayed when I’m sitting in my home and watching Sky News.Undoubtedly, the surroundings have been challenging and tough. As a result, I will need to adjust as well as some of the European additions we’ve made. We don’t want to use up all of our energy practicing. I’m ready for the challenge and open to change, but there are some things we need to adjust. I know what I consented to.

However, given it being football, the second half saw a rapid change in the situation. Al-Nassr’s backup goalkeeper Nawaf al-Aqidi committed two mistakes in the first few minutes. Within two minutes of the game’s restart, Aqidi grabbed a Henderson corner but dropped the ball after receiving a slight prod. Attacker from Sweden, Robin Quaison, was there to push the ball in. Aqidi again interfered six minutes later to fumble an Ali Hazazi cross, and this time Dembélé squandered the chance.

Gerrard’s team appeared to have recovered all of a sudden. Yes, there were still interruptions, and no one was about to try any gegenpressing, but at least Al-Ettifaq had set up in recognizable lines on the field and was able to move as a group, blocking space as Al-Nassr attempted to reenter the game. Henderson was the focal point of the opposition and he persisted the entire time.

Gerrard said that after failing to secure employment at Leeds and Leicester in the Championship, he had taken the job offer from Al-Ettifaq. But he was glowing in his comments for the former captain of Liverpool. More more than others, we are aware of what he brings to the table, according to Gerrard.

“He played for the team tonight even though he wasn’t really ready, and it was a credit to him to play in that heat for so long,” said the coach.

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