Cristiano Ronaldo has been banned
for two matches following his red card for Real Madrid against Cordoba, and
will be available for the derby against Atletico Madrid next month.
The
Ballon d'Or winner was shown a straight red card for striking and kicking
Cordoba's Edimar in a match Real won 2-1 thanks to a late Gareth
Bale penalty.
Ronaldo will miss games at home to Real Sociedad and Sevilla
- but will be available for the trip to the Vicente Calderon to face Atletico
on February 7.
Speculation
had swirled that Ronaldo could be suspended for as many as 12 games, but the
Portuguese forward has escaped with the standard sanction for a straight red
card offence.
Ronaldo initially appeared
unrepentant on being sent off, smirking at the referee and stroking the gold
Club World Cup winners badge on his Real
Madrid shirt.
However, he later Tweeted: "I
apologise to everyone and especially Edimar for my thoughtless action in
today's game."
Barcelona's Brazilian star Neymar
offered a degree of sympathy to Ronaldo, but said he should still be punished:
“I don’t know how long his ban
should be as I don’t work for the Competition Committee,” he said.
“It’s easy for those that weren’t
there to talk about it but all players are subjected to different things and
sometimes we deal with it.
“It’s bad and is a negative thing, although we
can’t do what he did so I think he needs to be punished. It’s hard because
there might be provocation, like happened to [Zinedine] Zidane or to me, and
you need to work on that in your own mind."
THE VIEW FROM SPAIN
Cristian Maxedo, Eurosport Spain:
"There are people in Spain who think he has got a good ban because the
referee didn’t include a more extensive description about the incident in his
report to the Arbitration Committee. On the other hand, there are a lot people
who think he should have been sanctioned for three matches and that he has been
forgiven because the third match was against Atletico."
No comments:
Post a Comment