Ronaldo causes controversy once more whilst Barcelona become Winter Champions

 Cristiano Ronaldo has made headlines and divided opinions once again after scoring both goals in Real Madrid’s 2-0 win over Málaga on Sunday – only to then receive a straight red card for breaking Patrick Mtiliga’s nose with a swinging arm in the second-half.

The Portuguese winger scored two fabulous goals for Madrid within three minutes of each other in the first-half of the game which saw Real Madrid comfortably take all three points from the clash at the Santiago Bernabeú.

But Ronaldo was unable to make it a third after he was handed his marching orders in the 70th minute after retaliating to Mtiliga pulling on the Portuguese starlet’s shirt - leaving the Denmark defender with a broken nose.

This now represents Ronaldo’s second red card of the season (and sixth in his career overall) and ironically both have been for making contact with players (or rather ‘lashing out’ on players).

Ronaldo received his first red card with his new team in the match against Almeria in December after kicking Juanma Ortiz and now less than two months later, what should have been a one-time mistake has now occurred again with serious consequences. The 24-year-old has been handed a two-match suspension and will miss the away game against Deportivo La Coruña this weekend and the visit of Espanyol to the capital the following week if Real should be unsuccessful in their appeal of the red card.

Since Sunday the newspapers have been awash with debates on the incident with Marca, the Spanish sports newspaper, claiming that Ronaldo was the victim of another unprovoked attack. Ronaldo claimed that he was only trying to break free of Mtiliga, which certainly seems the case, but surely he cannot justify his actions with the argument that “if he [Mtiliga] had been taller I would have struck his chest”. As for Jorge Valdano, the Real Madrid general director’s argument that referees need to protect players like Cristiano because they simply “want to entertain”, does that mean that players like Patrick Mtiliga do not require protection from referees?

I do feel a bit sorry for Ronaldo because I do not think he meant to hurt Mtiliga (or break his nose for that matter) – I don’t doubt Ronaldo has good intentions when on the pitch. But on Sunday it did look like he wanted to get away from Mtiliga and in the process it looked like he was going to do so with a bit of force. A red card? Right decision. A somewhat tainted win for him? Probably. In any case it is vital that Cristiano learns to control his reactions to provocation by opposing players because the only thing that will come out of such incidents will be deliberate wind-ups, yellow cards, red cards, probably suspensions and the small fact of letting your teammates down. In the end it really isn’t worth the hassle.

But if the Real Madrid v Málaga match was exciting, if only for the outstanding Ronaldo goals and a bit of controversy late on involving the same player, it was the Madrid derby happening south of the city which provided more football entertainment than in the capital as Míchel’s rising stars, Getafe, hosted a resurgent Atlético Madrid.

For the latter their resurgence was barricaded by a strong and classy force, that of Getafe. The team who seemed to be faltering early on in the season have now become the team who recently beat Sevilla, went to Mallorca in the Copa del Rey and tarnished their unbeaten home record by winning there, and then outshone and outplayed Atlético on Sunday night winning 1-0 at the Coliseum. 

Manu was the player to score for Getafe but it was in fact the quality of the cross from Pedro León which gave Manu, the player who recently said that it was the win against Sevilla which gave the squad belief that they could really achieve something this season, the opportunity to take all three points from the game. 10-man Atlético had chances to equalise but they lacked motivation and inspiration throughout the match and with the win Getafe see themselves four points off the Champions League slots and just one place off European qualification.

And whilst the Madrid teams were busy in action on Sunday night it was league-leaders Barcelona who dazzled by winning 3-0 against Valladolid one day earlier. Xavi got the first goal for the visiting side before Dani Alves scored a blinder just a minute later with a goal that looked like it intended to be a cross instead smashing into the back of the net. Lionel Messi then made it a third for the Catalan giants with the win meaning Barcelona became Winter Champions and ended the first-half of the La Liga season unbeaten.  

Matchday 19 results: Deportivo La Coruña 3 Athletic Bilbao 1; Espanyol 1 Mallorca 1; Getafe 1 Atlético Madrid 0; Real Madrid 2 Málaga 0; Sevilla 1 Almería 0; Tenerife 0 Valencia 0; Valladolid 0 Barcelona 3; Villarreal 4 Zaragoza 2; Xérez 1 Osasuna 2.

And now let’s take a quick look at the best matches in the last week from around Europe…

Premier League: ‘When the Stoke equaliser went in and Kuyt missed his header in the dying seconds of the game, it was soul-destroying’. Those were the words I used when describing the feeling of disbelief when Liverpool drew 1-1 to Stoke just over a week ago at the Britannia stadium. It wasn’t a loss, it was still one point gained, but for Liverpool fans such as myself, it sure felt like a loss with the 90th-minute Stoke goal meaning Liverpool lost two crucial points again late on in a match. But Liverpool managed to put in a convincing and relieving win against fourth-placed Tottenham midweek by beating the North Londoners 2-0 at Anfield. The win took the Merseysiders to fifth-place but with the goalless draw against Wolves tonight and with Spurs winning over Portsmouth, Liverpool still trail Tottenham by three points.

Serie A: Whilst Cristiano Ronaldo was smashing in goals at the Bernabéu on Sunday night, Inter Milan were smashing in goals against city rivals AC Milan at the San Siro in what was a highly charged and electric derby match. The nine-man hosts Inter won the game 2-0 with goals coming from Diego Milito and Goran Pandev. But the match wasn’t without it’s own share of controversy as former Real Madrid player Wesley Sneijder was sent off in the first-half for dissent to the referee and Lucio was sent off late in the game for a handball. The awarded penalty was then taken by Ronaldinho which was susbsequently saved by Julio César ending the clash in dramatic yet exciting fashion with Inter going nine points clear of their city rivals.

Vaishali Bhardwaj

 http://vaishalibhardwaj.wordpress.com/

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