Ronaldo was lucky – Queiroz

Saransk – Iranian coach Carlos Queiroz (below) said Portuguese captain Cristiano Ronaldo was fortunate to escape a red card despite a VAR (video assistant referee) review following an elbow in Monday’s 1-1 draw at the World Cup.

Portugal will face Uruguay in the last-16 after advancing as runners-up of Group B, but Queiroz insisted Ronaldo deserved to be sent off for catching Iranian defender Morteza Pouraliganji with an elbow to the face.

“I don’t want to talk too much, it’s about my country and a player. I know it’ll be a war against me,” said Queiroz, who coached his native Portugal at the 2010 World Cup.

“But the reality is you stopped the game for VAR, there is an elbow. An elbow is a red card in the rules. In the rules it doesn’t say if it is (Lionel) Messi or Ronaldo...”

It was a busy evening for the VAR in Saransk as two penalties were awarded upon review on top of the Ronaldo altercation.

“We accepted human mistakes before, that was part of the game. Players make mistakes, coaches make mistakes and referees make mistakes,” said Queiroz. “But now you have one system that cost a fortune and what happens? Nobody takes responsibility.

“We need to be like rugby. When there is a decision by VAR I need to know what the referee is saying, people need to know what is going on.

“... everybody agreed that VAR is not going well,” he added. “That’s the reality, there’s a lot of complaints.”

Portuguese boss Fernando Santos said he thought the referee made the right decision.

“No I wasn’t concerned (about a red card), it seemed liked a normal thing in the match. The referee did what he had to do.

“He went to the VAR twice or three times, he considered two penalties and one yellow card. I’d have to watch it again to talk about it, but I think the VAR did its job.” –