Al Nassr boss Luis Castro has said Cristiano Ronaldo’s red card during the team’s Saudi Cup semi-final defeat to Al Hilal was unfair. After Al Nassr’s 1-2 loss in the Saudi Cup last week, Castro was critical of the referee’s decisions in the match.
“Ali Al-Bulayhi acted in front of the referee and Ronaldo. The decision was incorrect”. Castro even explained that he did not see anything that should have led to Ronaldo’s expulsion from the match. “I will not talk about the shot of the legend Cristiano Ronaldo because I do not see that he did anything that deserved to be expelled”, Castro was quoted as saying by Goal.com.
Ronaldo was shown a straight red card during the semi-final.
The drama began when the Portuguese star got into a heated argument with the referee after his goal was disallowed in the first half due to an offside. He ended up getting booked for his actions.
In the second half, Ronaldo was given a straight red for elbowing Al Hilal defender Al-Bulayhi in the 86th minute.
The football icon is now expected to serve a two-match suspension for his aggression and behaviour during the game.
Ronaldo will also have to pay a fine of 10,000 to 20,000 riyals as penalty for his booking. The straight red also means that the former Real Madrid and Manchester United goal scorer will likely not feature in Al-Nassr’s matches against Al Fahya and Al Khaleej.
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Castro claimed Al-Bulayhi’s actions were nothing but simulation considering that there was barely any contact between the two players.
“The Al Hilal defender pretended that he was hit in the face, and it was a play on his part, and the contact was small, and they took advantage of Ronaldo’s provocation,” he said.
The Al Nassr boss also added that there should have been a VAR intervention to prevent such an incident from occurring. “The VAR referee was supposed to call the main referee, and this is my personal opinion”, he added.
Following the red-card, Al Hilal were through to the Saudi Super Cup final.
They eventually won the competition by beating Al Ittihad 4-1 in the final on April 11.
As for Al Nassr, they will next compete on April 19 against Al Fayha in the Saudi Pro League. Al Nassr are currently in second place in the standings with 65 points from 21 games. They currently sit 12 points below the first-placed Al Hilal.
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