Cristiano Ronaldo nearly has teeth knocked out by Harry Maguire and the incident sums up their rather disastrous season.
Not only did the Red Devils crash out of the Champions League, but to make matters worse, Ronaldo will be waking up with a sore face as he took a nasty blow directly to the mouth courtesy of Maguire’s head.
With the pair jostling in the box at a Man Utd set-piece, Maguire attempted to escape the attention of Atletico Madrid defender Stefan Savic.
It really is mad that Harry Maguire is Cristiano Ronaldoβs captain pic.twitter.com/z8iDukPoPD
β π΄ The Red Debate π (@TheRedDebate) March 16, 2022
‘Slabhead’ however lived up to his name by clattering straight into Ronaldo, who was stood directly behind him.
Maguire quickly moved his hands towards the back of his head in reaction to the painful coming together, while Ronaldo moved his hand towards his mouth after being taken backwards by Maguire.
United’s top scorer somehow still managed to remain focused enough to try and get his head on the delivery, that came without success.
Things were even worse for Maguire though, with the England international met by jeers from the crowd after being taken off by interim boss Ralf Rangnick.
A first half header by Renan Lodi saw Man Utd chasing for much of the game after the break.
It summed up a miserable night, and ultimately a miserable season for Maguire and his fellow teammates with United now set to finish yet another season without any silverware following the 1-0 defeat.
Player ratings
Man Utd: De Gea (7), Dalot (5), Varane (6), Maguire (5), Telles (6), McTominay (6), Fred (7), Fernandes (6), Elanga (7), Ronaldo (6), Sancho (6).
Subs: Rashford (5), Matic (6), Pogba (6), Cavani (n/a), Mata (n/a).
Atletico Madrid: Oblak (7), Gimenez (8), Savic (7), Reinildo (7), Llorente (8), De Paul (7), Herrera (7), Koke (7), Renan Lodi (8), Joao Felix (7), Griezmann (7).
Subs: Kondogbia (6), Felipe (n/a), Correa (n/a).
Man of the match: Renan Lodi.
“I think we played a good first half,” said Rangnick post-match. “All those things we planned to do we did. The only thing we did not do was convert that energy into scoring the first goal ourselves. One thing we cannot do against Atletico is concede the first goal.”
Rangnick was frustrated that the officials did not award the foul on Elanga in the build-up to the game’s only goal. “I did not think we should have been 1-0 down,” he said. “For me that was a foul on Elanga. That was the only really dangerous moment, apart from the offside goal that they scored.
“The second half, I don’t know if the game was played for more than two minutes without someone down on the floor. There were some curious decisions, I don’t know if they were decisive.”
He added on BT Sport: “We had one or two good moments where we should have scored. Conceding that counter-attacking goal before half time didn’t make life any easier for us.
“In the second half it was difficult – it was always interrupted with somebody lying on the floor. [The ref] fell for those time-wasting antics and four minutes extra time was a joke.”
“We couldn’t convert that first-half energy into goals.”
“Some curious refereeing decisions, four minutes of extra-time was just a joke.”
Ralf Rangnick shares his view as Man Utd are eliminated from the #UCL by Atletico Madrid.
π @TheDesKelly pic.twitter.com/i45SdToYbp
β Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) March 15, 2022
“It was very stable,” said Simeone of his own team’s performance.
“They caused us some issues down the sides, they started to cause us problems, then we changed things. Griezmann worked hard down the right and that enabled us to be better positioned.
“But it was not just this. We managed to hit them on the counter and that confirmed that the solutions were going to be there. I think the team really knew what they needed to do today.
“In the second half, we controlled the game and that made us more comfortable. We knew the opponent likes to play on the counter-attack so we decided to deny them the spaces.”
Twitter users reacted as Cristiano Ronaldo nearly has his teeth knocked out by Harry Maguire…
@FrankKhalidUK: Iβm totally convinced that Harry Maguire is man of the match every gameβ¦β¦β¦.for the opposition.
@rebekkarnold: If I donβt read a dressing room leak tomorrow that Ronaldo has head butted Maguire & put Rashford in a headlock, Iβll be disappointed.
@RickOShea54321: Harry Maguire now taking out his own team-mate, Ronaldo. The guy is such a liability.
@BobskiWhisky: Can you imagine how quickly Ronaldo would have been rolling on the floor if that was an Atleti player that made contact with him?
@danketch22: Ronaldo would have scored if ol’ microwave head didnt headbutt him. Maguire and rashford lets us down in key positions. Time to move both on.
@LUHGSzns: Maguire just head butted Ronaldo π€£ we just accept that this guy plays against us.
@AFCJulius: Ronaldo and Maguire clashing heads πππππππππππππ
@Irfaan_Sathar: Imagine getting a headbutt from slabhead π€
@SpursGnome65: slabhead butting ronaldo ππ
@AaronPriv4: Maguires slabhead caught Ronaldo clean π€£π€£π€£
@mcfckc_: Ronaldo was literally putting his hands behind Maguire and slabhead still managed to headbutt himπ
Maguire head butting Ronaldo #MUNATL pic.twitter.com/ZHTtvmTNOy
β β½οΈ442oonsβ½οΈ (@442oons) March 15, 2022

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