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Soccer Football – Premier League – Manchester United v Manchester City – Old Trafford, Manchester, Britain – November 6, 2021 Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo reacts REUTERS/Craig Brough EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or ‘live’ services. Online in-match use limited to 75 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club /league/player publications. Please contact your account representative for further details.
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Soccer Football – Premier League – Manchester United v Manchester City – Old Trafford, Manchester, Britain – November 6, 2021 Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo reacts REUTERS/Craig Brough EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or ‘live’ services. Online in-match use limited to 75 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club /league/player publications. Please contact your account representative for further details.
Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the greatest footballers of all time. He has played against thousands of footballers over the years, and for someone who doesn’t play a lot of top-flight football, sharing the field with CR7 is a huge achievement.
However, getting Ronaldo sent off is a feeling very few footballers can relate to. One such player is ex-Portsmouth star, Richard Hughes. He went up against Ronaldo in 2007 for Pompey in a 1-1 draw with United.
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Richard Hughes talks about his altercation with Cristiano Ronaldo
Hughes talked about the incident in an interview with Played Up Pompey Three. Notably, recalling the incident, he referred to the moment as a career highlight.
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TURIN, ITALY – JUNE 12: Cristiano Ronaldo of Juventus reacts during the Coppa Italia Semi-Final Second Leg match between Juventus and AC Milan at Allianz Stadium on June 12, 2020 in Turin, Italy. (Photo by Valerio Pennicino/Getty Images)
“I’m not someone who scored loads of goals, so I have to remember other landmarks. Should I ever meet people who don’t necessarily remember me playing Premier League football, I can always tell them that one of the game’s greats headbutted me,” Hughes said.
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Hughes reveals how he angered Ronaldo
Ronaldo wasn’t having a good game, but he was still a huge threat during set-pieces and corners. Hughes was tasked with marking the Portuguese forward, and that’s when it all went down.
Hughes was supposed to mark Ronaldo’s run, and he deliberately moved towards Ronaldo to collide with him while the ball sailed over their heads. While it seemed accidental at first, Hughes revealed that it wasn’t.
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Cristiano Ronaldo headbutted me and got sent off, it's a career highlight for me https://t.co/It7HUj3j8o
— Sun Sport (@SunSport) December 7, 2021
Hughes also added how he was blocking Ronaldo’s path to get a good jump for the ball. He wasn’t going to get into an altercation with Ronaldo, and hence he was walking away. However, Ronaldo tried to confront him and accidentally head-butted him and got sent off.
“He knew what I was up to – I was blocking his ability to get a run on the cross. Now I wasn’t interested in a head-to-head altercation, so he had to come in a little closer – and, when he did, he popped against the side of my head. He didn’t mean to headbutt me, but went in aggressively and ended up doing just that,” Hughes revealed.
Do you think Ronaldo’s move was deliberate?
