Last night, in the final 16 of the Champions League, we had witnessed what was supposed to be a classic on our hands. Two of the biggest clubs in the world of Futbol squared off to decide who moves onto the final 8 of the biggest club tournament in the world.
For the first hour or so, things seemed to be going Manchester United's way. They were leading 1 - 0 courtesy of Nani's low cross into the box and Sergio Ramos' inadvertent clearance that ended up in his own goal.The Red Devils had victory secured and where well on their way to advancing.
However, one of the most erroneous red cards in Champions League history had changed the whole game.
Follow me after the jump for more.
In the 56th minute though, things changed for the worse for United and for all of soccer, to be quite honest. Turkish Referee Cuneyt Cakir slapped Nani with a red card for what looked like a dangerous and violent kick to the chest of Alvaro Arbeloa.
However, the replays clearly showed that Nani was running forward, looking behind him at the ball, and had no idea Arbeloa was coming his way. He proceeded to jump up, sticking his leg out to try and control the ball and instead connected with Arbeloa in what was without a doubt an accidental foul.
It's absolutely mind-boggling as to what the Referee was thinking by sending Nani off and leaving United a man down for the next 30 minutes. At most, Nani deserved a yellow for having his leg up so high...but even that would seem harsh.
Real Madrid deserve some credit because they went on to take full advantage of United and pot two goals in a three minute span. However, this is not how the game was suppose to pan out. Even before the game, Sir Alex Ferguson stated that in a game of such epic proportions, the last thing he wanted to see was the Referee dictate the final score. Unfortunately, that is exactly what happened and it is a shame to see.
Even my friends whom were watching the game with me and whom have just started getting into Futbol this year were dumd-founded by the decision. Immediately, we all thought about the scandals that have been going in Football the last couple of years and that have just been reported this past year.
How could that have been a red card? How could the Referee have had the nerve to steal the spotlight off two teams that to that point were playing the games of their lives? Is there more to this outrageous decision? Years from now, will we hear how this Referee was actually paid to give out at least one red in this game and his opportunity came on this play?
Regardless, fans of Futbol were expecting a classic showdown where the best team would win and the players would decide the outcome of the game. Instead, the Futbol world was robbed of that by a Referee who wanted to become bigger than the game.
And the rest was history.
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