'It had nothing to do with me, unless I got into his head' - Hallgrimsson explains Ronaldo confrontation

13 Nov 2025, 22:51 by Gavin Cooney · The42

Gavin Cooney

HEIMIR HALLGRIMSSON HAS revealed what Cristiano Ronaldo said to him in the moments after the Portuguese star was sent off in Ireland’s shock World Cup qualifier win in Dublin.

Ronaldo was sent off on the hour mark for flinging his elbow into Dara O’Shea: he was initially given a yellow card before it was upgraded to a straight red card following a VAR review. After he was sent off, Ronaldo confronted Hallgrimsson, in reference to the irish manager’s pre-game comments.

Having complained that the referee in Ireland’s 1-0 defeat to Portugal last month, Hallgrimsson yesterday said the referee was “controlled” by Ronaldo, and called for tonight’s ref, Glenn Nyberg, to avoid falling under Ronaldo’s sway.

Ronaldo yesterday responded by saying Hallgrimsson was playing mind games, and promised he would try to be a “good boy”, in now laughably fateful words.

“He complimented me for putting pressure on the referee”, said Hallgrimsson in his post-match press conference.

“It was nothing to do with me. It was his action on the pitch that cost him a red card,. It was a moment of silliness from him.”

Portugal manager Roberto Martinez defended Ronaldo.

“The red card is from a captain who has never been sent off in 226 games, I think it was a bit harsh”, said Martinez. “He cares about the team, it’s 58 minutes of being grabbed and pushed in the box, I think the action looks worse than it is, I think it is [a turn of] Ronaldo’s full body, rather than an elbow.

“It was a red card for the right reasons, as he cares, he was frustrated.

“What is disappointing is your coach was talking in the press conference about the aspect of the referee being influenced, then a big centre-back falls on the floor, dramatically.”

Hallgrimsson was meanwhile reluctant to single out individuals for praise, even goalscoring hero Troy Parrott, citing his side’s collective performance.

“He scored the two goals, he Chieo and Finn really hurt them on the counter. It was a good connection between those three we probably should have scored more goals than two. I was happy, it was a similar game to the game in Portugal but the difference was we used our moments with the ball much better. This is what we planned to do in Portugal but we didn’t do it.

“For Thursday it’s okay to smile and enjoy this win, but it is only half-time. We wanted to go to the last game and still have a chance, and we have that now. What a moment for us. Even talking after the game against Armenia when things didn’t look well, it is in our hands to qualify for the next round, there is a lot of positivity in that performance but our primary focus now is to regain as much energy now for that second game.”