Cristiano Ronaldo stormed off the pitch after the final whistle as his late goal was disallowed and it took two crucial points off Portugal against Serbia in FIFA World Cup Qualifier 2022.
Portugal led in the first half by excellent two-headed goals from Diogo Jota. However, Fernando Santos‘ side could not hold the lead and in the second half, Serbia came back brilliantly. Aleksandar Mitrovic and Filip Kostic scored two goals to equalize the game.
Fiorentina’s Serbian defender Nikola Milenkovic had a game to forget. Jota, who is half of the size of Milenkovic, beat him in the air twice. Both the goals were down to his individual errors and also late in the game he conceded a red card for a very rash challenge.
Ronaldo was upset about the disallowed goal
The biggest controversy happened right at the death of the game. A long ball came from the deep and Ronaldo’s nicely controlled volley was going towards the goal and in the end, Stefan Mitrovic cleared off the line. The follow-up ball fell nicely to Bernardo Silva and Mitrovic saved it again heroically off the line.
Ronaldo was protesting to the linesman that the ball went over the line and it was definitely a goal. But, the Dutch referee Danny Desmond Makkelie and his team denied the goal and a yellow card was shown to Ronaldo for dissent. Goal-line technology and the VAR isn’t in function for the World Cup qualifiers.
But on replay, it showed clearly that the ball went over the line and the goal should have stood and Portugal should have won the match by 3-2. VAR should be used in games of this nature or the whole thing should be scrapped.
“There are moments which are tough to digest especially when we feel the entire nation is being punished. We will keep our heads up and move on to the next challenge.” – Ronaldo said on Instagram.
Portugal manager Santos revealed that the referees apologized for their action on the pitch and that was a genuine goal. This draw means they got 4 points in two games in group A of the FIFA World Cup qualifier 2022.
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