Feyenoord defeated Vitesse 2-1 in Eredivisie action today thanks to Robin van Persie’s thunderbolt of a free kick in the 87th minute. With the job finished, the 35-year-old immediately proceeded to go studs up from behind on some poor fellow to earn a straight red.
87’: Score one of the best free kicks the division will see all year.
91’: Earn a three-match suspension.
Juventus fans and football lovers everywhere have been waiting with baited breath for a ruling on the red card Cristiano Ronaldo received in Juve’s opening Group H match against Valencia last week. But no one has been more anxious than the Portuguese star himself, who left the pitch in tears for, what many believed, was a rather harsh call by the referee.
That feeling you have is one of extreme déjà vu: This is elementary school recess all over again. You’ve drafted teams, painstakingly setup field dimensions, bickered and argued over whose cone-defined goalmouth is unfairly sized and now it’s finally time to play — there’s not much time left in recess now.
Kickoff!
You can take Cristiano Ronaldo out of LaLiga, but you can’t take out the brilliant symmetry that’s conjoined the fortunes of Ronaldo and Lionel Messi since the day they were born. Days after Ronaldo saw red in the UCL, Messi’s Barcelona will have felt hard done by a red issued to defender Clement Lenglet — this one coming after the referee had gone to the monitor on the advice of the VAR (something still missing from the UCL).
When the dust settled from Cristiano Ronaldo’s shocking red card on Wednesday, after Juventus secured the three points against Valencia with a 2-0 win, one question began to crop up in the minds of football fans around the globe: Will Ronaldo miss Man U games in the Champions League?
A blockbuster Champions League encounter between Italian champions Juventus and Valencia — fourth place finishers in LaLiga — descended into farce when Cristiano Ronaldo was sent off 29 minutes into his UCL debut with the Old Lady.
Ronaldo had been active and involved throughout the early proceedings, and Juventus really should’ve taken the lead through either Mario Mandzukic or Sami Khedira, but both put close range shots over the bar in the game’s opening period.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s Champions League debut with Juventus lasted all of 29 minutes at Valencia’s Mestalla stadium. With Juventus in possession of the ball out wide in Valencia’s third, Ronaldo made a run into the box before play was stopped with both Valencia and Juventus players remonstrating and gesticulating wildly.
After a short break, German referee Felix Brych consulted the official behind the goal, and he looked adamant that Ronaldo deserved to be sent off for his actions. Brych duly obliged while Ronaldo went hysterical.
Maybe Douglas Costa doesn’t like sharing the spotlight with Cristiano Ronaldo? How else do you explain the shocking events that unfolded in the lead-up to the Douglas Costa red card on Sunday?
Ronaldo scored his first and second Juventus goals against Sassuolo on Sunday. The first was a simple tap-in but the second was pretty good.