Cristiano Ronaldo Picture Credit: Twitter/@ESPNFC
In an incident which has now viral gone on internet, Portugal skipper and football legend Cristiano Ronaldo walked off the field angrily even before the final whistle was blown by the referee after he was denied a last minute winner. The turn of events happened in the FIFA World Cup qualifying match between Portugal and Serbia on Saturday.
Ronaldo was so furious that he even threw his captain's armband in frustration. While the football legend thought he had secured a winner for his country, his strike was deemed to have not crossed the line. However, replays showed a different story as the ball had indeed crossed the line implying Portugal were wrongly denied a goal. The video of the incident has now gone viral on the internet.
Here is the goal:
Here is Ronaldo's reaction:
Consequently, the match ended in a 2-2 draw which should have been won by Portugal. The incident has yet again ignited the debate of the usage of VAR for qualifying round matches of the biggest football tournament. Had the VAR been in place, the decision would have stood corrected. For Serbia though, it wasn't that bad a night as they were staring a defeat after being 0-2 down.
Meanwhile, Ronaldo, the five time Ballon d'Or winner, later took to Instagram to share a social media post with his fans. "Being captain of the Portugal team is one of the greatest sources of pride and privileges of my life. I always give and will give everything for my country, that will never change. But there are difficult times to deal with, especially when we feel that an entire nation is being harmed. Lift your head and face the next challenge now," he captioned a picture of himself in the team huddle.
Ronaldo's post after the game: