Portugal head into a decisive World Cup qualifying fixture against Armenia with the notable absence of Cristiano Ronaldo after his straight red card against the Republic of Ireland. Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes offered a clear assessment of the incident on the eve of the match, and warned of the immediate impact on the squad.<\/p>\n
“He knows he made a mistake,” Fernandes said, via Mundo Deportivo . “And unfortunately he won\u2019t be able to help us tomorrow.”<\/p>\n
Fernandes reflected on the circumstances and the emotion of the game when explaining the red card. “In the heat of the game, in the heat of the moment, the frustration of not getting the result we wanted. It\u2019s something that happens in football, Cris [Ronaldo] had a reaction that proved costly. Obviously something he knows he didn\u2019t want to do but ended up happening.”<\/p>\n
At the time of the Armenia match there was no official ruling on how long Ronaldo\u2019s suspension will be. The immediate concern for Portugal is qualification for the 2026 World Cup; if the ban extends beyond a single match, Ronaldo could miss Portugal\u2019s opening game at the tournament.<\/p>\n
The situation is further complicated by FIFA\u2019s Disciplinary Code, which states that elbowing an opponent can carry a three-match ban. If FIFA applies that standard, the Real Madrid legend would face a significant suspension.<\/p>\n
Portugal manager Roberto Mart\u00ednez offered a different interpretation ahead of the Armenia fixture, defending his captain and stressing the context of the incident. \u201cIt\u2019s not a violent action,\u201d Mart\u00ednez said prior to Portugal\u2019s match against Armenia. \u201cIt\u2019s not a red card for assault, but rather a reaction to a provocation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201c[Provocations] began since the start of the game, in every action inside the penalty area. It was a reaction to try and keep playing. Others would\u2019ve gone to the ground trying to get a penalty. ]<\/p>\n
With qualification on the line, Portugal must navigate the immediate challenge without Ronaldo and deal with the potential wider consequences once FIFA announces the length of the suspension.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fernandes called Ronaldo’s red card ‘costly’ as Portugal seek World Cup qualification vs Armenia…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4492,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[961,1083],"tags":[342,1215,452],"class_list":["post-4493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-man-utd","tag-bruno-fernandes","tag-controversy","tag-cristiano-ronaldo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}