Ronaldo ‘texted Piers Morgan’ to say he’d scored – but technology says otherwise
Cristiano Ronaldo did not touch the ball for Portugal's opening goal against Uruguay at the World Cup as proven by technology – but he says otherwise.
The 37-year-old is said to have told pal Piers Morgan that he did make contact from Bruno Fernandes' delivery – as reported by Alexi Lalas who had appeared on TalkTV.
The ex-USMNT captain said on Fox Soccer: "I was just with Piers Morgan and he said that Cristiano texted him from the locker room saying that he believes that it touched his head. So, uhm, who knows."
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However, Adidas have since taken data from the match ball to show that there was no contact on the ball between the pass of Fernandes and the bounce which took it into the net.
An Adidas statement in the Daily Mail read: "In the match between Portugal and Uruguay, using the Connected Ball Technology housed in adidas’s Al Rihla Official Match Ball, we are able to definitively show no contact on the ball from Cristiano Ronaldo for the opening goal in the game.
"No external force on the ball could be measured as shown by the lack of ‘heartbeat’ in our measurements and in the attached graphic. The 500Hz IMU sensor inside the ball allows us to be highly accurate in our analysis."
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Only Ronaldo will be disappointed with Portugal into the last 16 thanks to their consecutive victories, although Fernandes didn't initially think the second goal was his.
Fernandes had said after the game: He said: "I don't think it really matters who scored the goal at this point.
"The feeling I had at the time was that Cristiano touched the ball. I was passing the ball to him.
"But the important thing was that we won tonight against a very tough opponent."
Ronaldo can take solace in the fact that he did score from the spot in Portugal's 3-2 win over Ghana in their opener, bringing his Portugal tally to 118.
The 37-year-old also became the first player to ever score in five different World Cup tournaments, despite being the only free agent at the tournament after leaving Manchester United.
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