Furious Cristiano Ronaldo Reacts After Outburst In The Portugal vs Serbia Controversy.

Cristiano Ronaldo reacts after outburst following the Portugal vs Serbia controversy.

The Portugal national team captain stormed off the pitch and angrily threw his captain's armband on the floor after he was denied a dramatic last-minute crucial winner by Dutch referee Danny Makkelie in the 90+4 minutes against Serbia in Belgrade on Saturday night.

Ronaldo was convinced that he had scored at the death, when the ball appeared to cross the goalline before Stefan Mitrovic cleared, with the scores level at 2-2 in Belgrade.

But due to no goal-line technology or VAR available to review the decision in the match, the officials disallowed the goal.

Furious Ronaldo was then booked for protesting before walking off the pitch into the dressing room in disgust just seconds remaining before the final whistle.

The Group A World Cup qualifying game, saw 10-man Serbia comeback from two goals down to secure a 2-2 draw.

Liverpool's forward Diego Jota scored both goals in the 11th and 36th minutes for the current Euro champions. While striker Aleksandar Mitrovic and winger Filip Kostic scored and equalised both goals for Serbia in the 46th and 60th minutes respectively. Defender Nikola Milenkovic was later sent off for Serbia in the 90+2 minutes of the game.

Cristiano Ronaldo '36' who is the all-time top scorer for his country, has scored 102 international goals and he is seven behind breaking Ali Daei's record of 109 goals.

"I will never change" said the five-time Ballon d'Or winner as he took to his verified Instagram handle to vent his dissatisfaction over the game;

"Being captain of the Portugal team is one of the greatest pride and privileges of my life,"

"I always give and will give everything for my country, that will never change.

"But there are difficult times to deal with, especially when we feel that an entire nation is being harmed.

"We will keep our heads up and face the next challenge now." Come on, Portugal!"



Portugal head coach Fernando Santos speaking during his news conference after the game said: "I was so furious with the situation, but revealed that the referee had apologised after the game at the Serbian capital.

"The referee apologised to me, he was in the dressing room with him and he apologised to me. He had told me on the pitch that he was going to see the video and that if it was the case he was calling me to apologise ... and so it was.

"That's the second time it's happened, a referee apologising after a qualifying game. We have to rethink. The referees are human and make mistakes, but that's why there is the VAR and the goal-line technology to avoid this." 

"It's unacceptable to play a World Cup qualifying match without VAR and goal-line technology."


Meanwhile Serbia and Portugal stay first and second, but are level on four points in Group A after two games.

Serbia defeated Republic of Ireland 3-2 at home in their opening game on Wednesday while Portugal got a 1-0 win over Azerbaijan.

Both teams are just one point ahead of Luxembourg who are third in the group table.


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