Ronaldo meant penalty trick

As Ronaldo planted his left foot, the turf under the ball seemed to move, sending it into the air and allowing Ronaldo to hit it on the volley. PSG 'keeper Areola guessed the right way, but the penalty was struck with such pace that the ball flew past him into the bottom corner, possibly as a result of this movement.

By the letter of the law, if the referee had been able to see what happened, the kick should have been retaken. But it was only with the benefit of slow motion cameras that anyone would spot it. 

It looks like a lucky occurence, but Rio Ferdinand, speaking on BT Sport, has claimed that Ronaldo used to practise the technique at Manchester United. 

"He used to do that in training you know!", Ferdinand said. "He used to mess about in training and do it but to do it in a game, I’m not saying he means it there, but he used to do it. I swear to you, crazy but he used to do it."

 

15 February 2018