At the beginning of the second half of the match between Portugal and Uruguay, on Monday (28), Bruno Fernandes crossed into the area and Cristiano Ronaldo went up to head it. The ball followed its trajectory and ended up entering the left corner of goalkeeper Sergio Rochet.
The Portuguese striker left to celebrate his second goal in the World Cup in Qatar, which would be his ninth in World Cups, equaling Eusébio’s mark. However, moments later FIFA announced that the goal had been credited to Bruno Fernandes.
As soon as there was confirmation over the stadium’s loudspeaker, Ronaldo smiled. Fernandes would still score, from the penalty spot, the second goal of his selection in the 2-0 victory, to guarantee qualification to the round of 16.
As Ronaldo’s header had repercussions in the press and on social networks, Adidas, the manufacturer of the competition’s ball, released a note clarifying the situation.
“Using the Connected Ball Technology installed on the official match ball, Al Rihla by Adidas, we are able to definitively show that there was no contact by Cristiano Ronaldo with the ball in the opening goal of the match. No external force on the ball could be measure, as shown by the lack of a ‘knock’ in our measurements. The 500Hz IMU sensor inside the ball allows us to be highly accurate in our analysis”, reads the press release published in European press such as Sky Sports.
British journalist Piers Morgan posted on Twitter that Ronaldo had assured him that his head had touched the ball and that even Bruno agreed. However, CR7’s attempt was in vain and FIFA even confirmed the goal for Fernandes.
“The feeling I had was that Cristiano touched the ball. I was passing the ball to him,” said Fernandes after the match. “What matters is that we are going through to the next round after facing a very difficult opponent.”
Cristiano Ronaldo will still have the chance to equal and even surpass Eusébio’s mark, but he already broke a record in his first game in Qatar: he is the only player to score goals in five World Cups, with the goal that opened the victory by 3 to 2 on Ghana.
The chip in the ball is a technology that took three years to produce through research and testing. One of its main objectives is what has become known as “semi-automatic offside”, the mechanism to reduce the time taken to check the position of players on the field, which has already nullified several goals in Qatar, including Brazil, against Switzerland.
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