Ronaldo denies he got Rooney sent off
1 July 2006 by AFP
Cristiano Ronaldo denied Saturday he got Wayne Rooney sent off in an incident that put his Manchester United colleague among an infamous group of England players to see red in the FIFA World Cup™.
Rooney let his fiery temperament get the better of him just when he needed to keep his cool, stamping on Ricardo Carvalho in the 62nd minute with the quarter-final against Portugal poised at 0-0.
He made the matter worse by shoving Ronaldo after the Portuguese winger waded in to protest with the referee.
A stunned Rooney, who joined David Beckham and Ray Wilkins as the only England players ever to be sent off at the finals, was eventually led off fuming.
Beckham was given his marching orders against Argentina in the second-round clash in 1998 by Danish referee Kim Milton Neilsen, while Wilkins was sent off against Morocco in the 1986 finals.
Down to 10 men, England battled on but lost on penalties with Ronaldo hammering the final nail into their coffin by converting the match-winning spot kick.
Ronaldo denied though that he encouraged the referee to give Rooney his marching orders.
"People will say that the referee gave the red card because I spoke with him. This is not true. I spoke with him to say it was a foul, but I only said it was a foul, not a red card," said Ronaldo.
"I think the English press will say Rooney was sent off because of me but it is not true."
Ronaldo was seen winking at his bench after the incident but refused to comment on why.
Gary Neville, who is Rooney and Ronaldo's captain at United, said the England striker was heartbroken but would get over it.
"He is a colleague at club and international level and we hope the sending-off won't be as bad as it looks," he said.
"I know Wayne is a strong character and whatever comes of it, and he is heartbroken, there will be people around him who will have been through it all before.
"But tonight is not about about Wayne Rooney being sent off, it's about England being out of the World Cup."
It was a deja vu moment for England.
They were leading 1-0 in their Euro 2004 quarter-final against bogey team Portugal when Rooney departed with a broken metatarsal, a game-turning injury in a match also lost on penalties.
Before the game Rooney had declared himself ready for anything Portugal's tough-tackling defence could throw at him, but it was the volatile 20-year-old who lost his head, plunging his teammates into crisis.
His dismissal came just as England were taking control of the match as they attempted to reach their first FIFA World Cup semi-final since 1990, and barely 10 minutes after a tearful Beckham went off injured.
In response, Sven-Goran Eriksson took off Joe Cole and replaced him with Peter Crouch, with little other choice.
With Michael Owen out injured, the only other striker he had was 17-year-old Theo Walcott who has never played a Premiership game let alone a stormy FIFA World Cup quarter-final.
Rooney has been a marked man since returning from injury to boost what had been England's flagging campaign, and had been targeted in the three matches he has played in the tournament.
The FIFA World Cup has already had a taste of his temperament.
When he was substituted in the 2-2 draw with Sweden, he greeted the move with a spectacular touchline tantrum.
Rooney was replaced by Liverpool's Steven Gerrard and was far from happy, hitting the dug-out roof and throwing his boots to the ground at the premature end to his first start since breaking his foot in April
i hope that shitstirring ladyboy
Cristiano Ronaldo doesn`t come back to england to play for man utd i blame him for Wayne Rooney sending off
