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Cristiano Ronaldo stays silent over “deliberate” yellow card

By on October 12, 2013

Cristiano Ronaldo wholeheartedly explained Portugal’s poor performance in their World Cup qualifiers, yet refused to comment on whether he deliberately got himself booked against Israel as to allow himself to return to Real Madrid training.

The 28-year-old was yellow carded for protesting in the final minutes of Portugal’s 1-1 draw with Israel on Friday, which means he will be banned from his side’s final qualifier against Luxembourg, who currently sit bottom of Uefa qualifying Group F.  Although the ban allowed Ronaldo to leave Portugal’s training camp and return to club training in Madrid, the winger refused to say if he purposely attempted to relieve himself of international duties.

“I can’t talk about that [booking],” Ronaldo told reporters. “Fifa is always very attentive to those situations,” he added, referring to the game’s ruling body. “The playoff is the most important and I don’t want to be out. I will be at those two matches.”

Despite the fact that Portugal will almost certainly beat Luxembourg unless Azerbaijan triumphs over top of the table Russia on Tuesday Portugal must face the possibility of playing France, Croatia, or Sweden in the playoffs.  Still, Ronaldo told A Bola that it is “it is not a drama” to be in the playoffs, but claimed he fears of meeting France.

“France are the strongest we may face,” the 2008 Ballon d’Or winner said. They are the only ones I do not want to face.”

Even if they don;t get France Portugal’s inconsistent form, which has only rewarded them with one win from their last four matches, could prove any tie tricky.  This was proven in Portugal’s match with Israel, and Ronaldo also commented on his side’s poor match.

“We have to improve in many aspects,” Ronaldo said. “Israel had two buses behind the ball and when it’s like that it’s hard to score.

“We were apathetic in the second half, looked sleepy even, and things did not go well. We lacked a bit of maturity at times – maybe it was because we had a young team with a lot of changes.”

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.