Matic Teases Ronaldo And Bruno Fernandes After Portugal Were Denied Winner
Manchester United midfielder Nemanja Matic could not resist a sly dig at Cristiano Ronaldo and Bruno Fernandes after the Portugal captain was denied a late winner against Serbia on Saturday.
Ronaldo was raging after his late strike in the World Cup qualifier wasn’t given, despite the ball clearly crossing the line in stoppage-time.
Serbian midfielder Matic, a team-mate of Fernandes’ at Old Trafford, retired from international football last year but teased the Portuguese pair by posting an Instagram story of a photoshopped snap of Saturday’s incident.
In the photo, Serbian defender Stefan Mitrovic clears the ball off the line – not over the line – and Matic writes: ‘Just on the line. Is it all clear now?’ and tags both Ronaldo and Fernandes.
The qualifier in the end finished 2-2 in Belgrade and Portugal skipper Ronaldo threw his armband away in disgust following the full-time whistle.
Portugal coach Fernando Santos said afterwards that Dutch referee Danny Makelie had apologised for the mistake.
‘The referee apologised to me in the booth and told me he was embarrassed. I was in the dressing room with him and apologised to me,’ Santos said.
‘He had told me on the pitch that he was going to see the images and that if it was the case he was calling me to apologise – and so it was.
‘It is the second time in a qualifying phase that they apologise to me after the game. I told him on the pitch that there was no VAR or goal line – one of the things he told me was that the goal line was important – but I told him that the ball was half a metre inside the goal.
‘There was no obstacle between the goalkeeper and the goal line. [it is a] problem because we drew. We have to rethink. The referees are human and make mistakes, but that’s why there is the VAR and the goal line technology to avoid this.’
Ronaldo and Fernandes are likely to line-up for Portugal tonight against Luxembourg, with the 2016 European champions joint-top of Group A alongside Serbia after two games.