Cristiano Ronaldo red card: Portugal captain was sent off against the Republic of Ireland – was it the right call?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Portugal coach Roberto Martinez had a different view of the incident and defended his captain, taking a sharp swipe at Hallgrimsson for talking about the referee in the build-up.

“The red card is from a captain who has never had a red card before in 226 games – I think he deserves that recognition – and today I thought it was a bit harsh because he cares about the team,” Martinez said.

“For 60 or 58 minutes he was held in the box, pulled, pushed and of course tried to get away from the defender.

“I think the action looks worse than it actually is, I don’t think it’s an elbow, I think it’s a full body, but from where the camera is it looks like an elbow. But we accept that.”

“The only thing that left a bitter taste in my mouth was when in yesterday’s press conference your coach talked about the referees being influenced and then a big centre-half fell dramatically to the ground with the turn of Cristiano’s body.”