In Portugal’s previous World Cup qualifying game against Israel, Cristiano Ronaldo was shown yellow card in the first minute of the injury time. Now, that’s something that is pretty normal in the game of football. Players get booked when they cross the line. But, that Ronaldo incident is being discussed a lot in the media and among the fans these days. The discussion is if that booking was intentional on Ronaldo’s part.

Now, let us see why people are thinking so. Portugal’s World Cup qualifying group is Group F. To come close to the group leaders Russia and to keep their hopes alive of directly qualifying for the finals, they needed to secure win against Israel.  But, they couldn’t do that. Now, it’s certain that they have to go through the play offs. So, their next game against Luxemburg is not of much importance.

The yellow card towards the end of the game against Israel ensured that Ronaldo was not going to play against Luxemburg, but, he will be there in the play offs which are starting next month.

However, when the Real Madrid striker himself was asked if that was an intentional thing, he said, “I wouldn’t say anything about that incident. But, one thing is for sure that I want to be there playing for my team in the play offs.”

When asked about the performance of his team against Israel, Ronaldo said, “I don’t think we were up to the mark. We were too slow in the latter half and at times, we looked sleepy. We need big improvements.”

In the play offs, Portugal might have to take on France which is one of the strongest teams in the world at the moment.  When asked about that, Ronaldo said, “They are a world class side. I hope we don’t face them.”