'Nothing to do with me': Ireland manager explains confrontation with Ronaldo after sending off

The 42

IRELAND MANAGER HEIMIR Hallgrimsson 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 referee, Glenn Nyberg, to avoid falling under Ronaldo’s sway.

Ronaldo responded on Wednesday 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.

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“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.” 

Hallgrimsson confirmed that Evan Ferguson has returned to training at Roma, and that he will know more today whether he will be fit to link up with the squad ahead of Sunday’s must-win game in Hungary.

Catalyst

The Boys in Green travel to Hungary in their final qualifier on Sunday knowing victory will see them leapfrog the side currently in second place.

Defender Nathan Collins believes that the manner of the Republic of Ireland’s emphatic 2-0 win over Portugal can be the catalyst for securing a World Cup play-off.

“If we can do that, we can beat anyone. I think it’s good that it’s simplified it for us. We just need to win. Nothing else, no other strings attached. Just go win a match, a game of football,” he said.

“I’ve said it before, I always thought we had this in us and that’s the most frustrating part when we lose because we know we have this in us. And that’s where it hurts the most.
Today wasn’t about, shutting anyone up, it wasn’t about any of that. It was about us, team, fans and just giving ourselves a chance on Sunday.

“We have to take confidence from this. It’ll be a completely different game [in Hungary], completely different team, away from home, it’s a bit different again. But we have a threat we know what we have to do and it’s simple now. It was so complicated for us before, but now it’s simple enough.”

On Ronaldo’s sending off, Collins said: “I didn’t see it. Dara isn’t one to go down soft, that’s twice now he’s done DOS [O'Shea]. I was saying to the ref, listen, everyone needs to be calm here.

“There’s a lot of emotions on the line, the crowd, everyone involved. And everyone needs to stay calm because this game could go on anywhere. And I thought, we as a team, we’ve done that. I think we stayed calm in them moments, we frustrated them and that’s what happened really.”

Ronaldo carried understandable confidence about winning the game during his pre-match press conference, even if a point would have sufficed for them to top the group.

“Did he say that? He wanted to qualify, that was their easy run then, they could go on holiday probably. It didn’t really get to us. We knew we were going to do it, we knew we had a job to do.

“Horrible is a weird word in football because the game’s gone where you can’t be horrible and you can be nasty and stuff like that. I think it’s gone so you have to be horrible in a different way and force them into tough areas and make them uncomfortable.

“But then that horribleness also counters when you go forward and making them run backwards and making them sprint back and having to defend. So there’s two ways of doing it. But I think with that attacking poise today, I thought that’s what brought the fans in the most.”

Written by Gavin Cooney and David Sneyd and originally published on The 42 whose award-winning team produces original content that you won’t find anywhere else: on GAA, League of Ireland, women’s sport and boxing, as well as our game-changing rugby coverage, all with an Irish eye. Subscribe here.