Cristiano Ronaldo dramatically escaped a red card during their match with Iran on Monday night following an off-the-ball elbow on an Iran player.
Ronaldo got away with just a yellow card after he elbowed Morteza Pouraliganji in the final 10 minutes of the World Cup Group B match.
Ronaldo’s elbow clearly caught Pouraliganji and the referee had a closer look at the incident after being instructed by VAR officials but Ronaldo was shown a yellow card after a lengthy VAR review for a possible red card.
Iran Coach Carlos Queiroz was outraged after Ronaldo was not sent off for an off-the-ball elbow on Pouraliganji.
Coach Queiroz questioned who was running the game following the referee decision saying, “We need to know who is running the game and making these decisions because at the moment no one is taking responsibility.”
“The reality is you stop the game for VAR and there is an elbow. An elbow is a red card in the rules. The rules don’t say if it is Messi or Ronaldo it’s a little bit.”
“But when you have high-technology, training, thousands of dollars spent on one system and five guys sitting upstairs and they don’t see and elbow. It’s a yellow card? Give me a break,” he said.
In the first half, Portugal scored the first goal thanks to a stunning Ricardo Quaresma strike and later on Ronaldo missed a penalty.
Iran scored a late penalty, given after another video review but Portugal progressed to the World Cup knockout stage.
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