Sunday, October 4, 2009

Ronaldo suffers ankle knock

Ronaldo suffers ankle knock

Cristiano Ronaldo has been left nursing an ankle knock after his involvement in a debatable penalty call on Wednesday.

The Real Madrid winger was clattered by Marseille defender Souleymane Diawara during the midweek UEFA Champions League fixture at Santiago Bernabeu.

The Senegal star was shown a second yellow card for his challenge on the Portuguese ace, while Kaka duly converted from the spot.

Real ultimately ran out 3-0 winners in the continental clash, with the penalty decision all-but ending Marseille's resistance.

The French side feel they have reason to be aggrieved, though, with replays suggesting that Diawara got more of the ball then he did of Ronaldo.

However, Real boss Manuel Pellegrini has dismissed their claims, revealing that his big-money summer buy is now a doubt for a weekend meeting with Sevilla as a direct result of the tackle in question.

"For how the ankle is, I think that the tackle was pretty strong, so I don't think that it's been an unfair penalty," said the Chilean coach.

Skills

Regarding the match itself, Pellegrini felt his side were worthy winners on the night, with Real having shown admirable restraint before Ronaldo forced a 58th-minute opener.

"I'd like to highlight the patience of the team," he added.

"We cannot expect in 45 minutes to solve all the problems that Marseille caused, but the team continued searching until we found the two or three decisive plays that we needed.

"Marseille had a very good first half and marked us well. They are a strong team defensively and they have very dangerous players up front. But as the match goes on players get tired.

"We scored three goals and had at least three or four more chances. Games last 90 minutes, 45 of them were even and in the second half we were much better than them.

"I think we had the technical and tactical skills to make the difference."



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