LUSAIL, QATAR: Cristiano Ronaldo reportedly texted Piers Morgan from his locker room to claim that he scored Portugal's opening goal in the game against Uruguay on Tuesday, November 29. He told Morgan on the text that he touched Bruno Fernandes' cross to open the scoring, former USA defender Alexi Lalas reportedly alleged.
"The breaking news is the Cristiano Ronaldo did not score despite his claims that it did touch him," the ex-USMNT captain told 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," he added. In the 54th minute of the game, the the 37-year-old looked like he was celebrating scoring a goal by holding his hands up in air, as per Daily Mail.
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Morgan tweeted, "Ronaldo confirmed to me that his head touched the ball. Even Bruno agrees." However, many slammed his claims.
Ronaldo appeared to get the finishing touch on Fernandes' ball, which flew into the corner and appeared to fool the Uruguay defense. Replays done in Lusail stadium revealed that the 37-year-old didn't manage to touch the ball into the area as Fernandes was awarded the goal, despite his attempt to flick the cross into a goal.
The five-time Ballon d'Or winner was brutally trolled on Twitter by football fans for desperately claiming Fernandes' goal as his own. One tweeted, "No he clearly didn’t yet he shamelessly celebrated as it was his goal most shameless player ever." another person tweeted, "Come on CR7.. This isn't expected from a player like U." A third tweet read, "No he did his goal celebration to claim it he never does it when others score but he wants so bad to score more than messi he is now stealing his team mates goals. PATHETIC," and another chimed in, "Still claiming it’s his goal …selfish player"
Fernandes acknowledged that it didn't matter who scored because Portugal easily defeated their South American opponents. "I don't really think it matters who scored," he reportedly said about the first goal, adding, "The feeling at the time was that he (Ronaldo) touched the ball - I was crossing it to him - but what's important was we moved into the next round and beat a very big opponent."
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