Ronaldo kicks off... but technology shows his goal should not have stood
Cristiano Ronaldo felt his effort had crossed the line and let the officials know
The Portuguese scored two goals in the win over APOEL but was denied a hat-trick
Cristiano Ronaldo's obsession with scoring was on show against APOEL on Wednesday. Nothing new, given the Portuguese forward always wants to stand out above all others and against Cypriot champions he had the perfect occasion to do so. However, his despair at each failed opportunity was still surprising.
In fact, one of the images of the game was Ronaldo protesting a referring decision which had been proven to be correct. In the first minutes of the second half, the Madrid forward saw an effort come back off the underside of the bar and bounce down off the line. It didn't quite cross the line, but Ronaldo was clear: he thought the ball had gone in and when he saw it hadn't been given he kicked off, protesting adamantly that the goal should be given.
Play continued, though, and goal line technology showed that the refereeing decision on the pitch was correct: the ball did not go over the line and should not have been a goal.
Shortly after Ronaldo did score his second goal, converting from the penalty spot having previously opened the scoring. However, he couldn't complete his hat-trick, with the offside flag denying him a treble in Madrid's 3-0 win -- Sergio Ramos scoring the third goal.
