cCristian Ronaldo was sent off with a red card in the Saudi Arabia Super Cup semi-final and sparked outrage with his reaction to the decision. With the score 0-2, the former European champion from Portugal got into a fight with his rival on Monday afternoon and pushed him to the ground, for which he received a red card in the 86th minute.
Video footage shows Ronaldo clenching his fist, raising it above his head and taking a half step towards the referee. The referee had already looked away. Ronaldo then mockingly clapped his hands and gave a thumbs up several times.
“We're not slowing down!”
His club, Al-Nasr, beat the former Bayern professional in added time. Sadio Mane in the end (90th + 9 minutes), but still lost to rival Al-Hilal and missed out on a place in the final of the Saudi Arabian Super Cup mini-tournament, which was held for the first time in Abu Dhabi.
In fact, things have been going well for Ronaldo lately. Already at 39 years old he demonstrated his scoring qualities in the Saudi league. Last Tuesday, the world footballer scored three goals in a game for the second time in Al-Nassr's 8-0 victory over Abha, in 72 hours.
“We're not going to stop!” Ronaldo wrote on Instagram after the game. The Portuguese international scored his goal in the first half and also provided two assists for the nine-time champion of Saudi Arabia, who, in second place, is twelve points behind the leader Al-Hilal with eight games remaining.
Ronaldo had already scored three goals in the 5-1 win over Al-Tai on Saturday, and has done so three times so far this season. Ronaldo leads the league as the league's top scorer with 29 goals. Against Abha, Ronaldo scored two goals from free kicks (minute 11/21). After half an hour, he assisted former Bayern professional Sadio Mané to make it 3-0. He scored again three minutes before the break before setting up Abdulmajeed Al-Sulayhim to make it 5-0. Ronaldo was substituted after the break.