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Football Daily, for research/self-loathing purposes, recently sat through Cristiano Ronaldo’s latest chat with Piers Morgan. Among many moments of hubris, self-celebration and smoke being blown up the great man’s rear end by the ever-willing Morgan, Ronaldo took a typical moment of quiet self-reflection. “I think in the world, nobody is more famous than me,” he trumpeted, Piers nodding along obediently. “Let’s debate it – who’s more famous, me or Donald Trump?” Though such a pointless debate might provide welcome distraction for a president rather uncomfortably named in some emails making the news at the moment, it has very little to do with what Ronaldo is famous for. While doing his day job he had a very bad time in Dublin, as Portugal went down 2-0 to an inspired Republic of Ireland side.
When Lansdowne Road roars with noise, few stadiums can match its fervour but it had been a long time, 10 years in fact, since Shane Long’s thunderbolt defeated Germany, to power Ireland to Euro 2016. After stunning the purportedly mighty Portugal, a win in Hungary on Sunday could land a Geopolitics World Cup playoff spot. Heimir Hallgrímsson was the architect, according to Ronaldo himself. Though Portugal were already two goals down, Troy Parrott snaffling both on what he afterwards termed “the greatest night of my life”, the money shot came when Ronaldo was given a red card, following a video review, for a clear and obvious elbow on Dara O’Shea.
