This controversial Nani red card vs Real Madrid ( VIDEO BELOW) tilted the scales of Man Utd’s Round of 16 Champions League tie ( on March 5, 2013) in Real Madrid’s favour and saw Los Merengues snatch a come from behind 2-1 win at Old Trafford to progress 3-2 on aggregate. Nani was dismissed by Turkish referee Cuneyt Cakir for an aerial challenge on Alvaro Arbeloa in the 56th minute, with United leading 1-0 at that stage
( Roy Keane comments on Nani red card)
Video- Nani sent off against Real Madrid
Man United 1-0 Real Madrid ( Nani red card v Real Madrid 56′)
Former United skipper Roy Keane caused consternation among United fans when he remarked that Cakir had done the right thing while analysing the game on television.
( Credits of this Nani sent off video with uploaders)
Rafael against Bayern and Nani against Real.
Would have edged both ties if not for these reds.
@ Red cards always our undoing
I’m a man u fan. And the loss hurts. Certainly the red card changed the dynamics of the game. No doubt about that. But we must be objective in our analysis, or else, reduce the beautiful sport we all love to conspiracy and gossip.
The red card was controversial only because it left one team with ten men; red cards are always controversial in that sense. But the rule book is clear: “dangerous plays” are red cards, regardless of the player’s intention. Roy Keane– the ex Man U captain– said it best: “Regardless of Nani seeing Arbeloa, studs up, at the chest level, is a red card every-time. There are 22 players on the field, so you must always assume someone is near you.” Plus, we must remember what the purpose of red cards is: namely, to protect the players that make this sport so beautiful. Sometimes we have to wait for one of these challenges to seriously injure someone in order to remind us why we have these rules to begin with: player safety.
Hahaha. The Red Card was deserved he pushes out at arbeloa after he makes contact with the intention of hurting him further. Typical Manchester Utd scum being Manchester Utd scum. Finally a decision goes against them. Enjoy
hi
with the recent spate of ongoing investigations of MATCH – FIXING , this is clearly one for the books . In my opinion , all avenues MUST be fully explored and i am sure that traces of match fixing would surface.
referring of the worst standards in the world.
Red card was a fair call. It was a clear danger play. The ref is playing by the regulation. What about if a player jumps high for a head butt and he extends his hands unintentionally. Is that allowed? The same rule applies here. Players cannot jump up with one leg so high unless they are so certain they are alone with the ball. Man U or Real or any other team should know that if one ref doesn’t see you, another will catch you. Don’t destroy the beauty of football, but put player safety first.
By the way what would MU achieve in 16 knockouts? Simple answers is Nothing. They can win their Premier Leagues every year. The UEFA is for high skilled teams only. The only English teams that can try are Chelsea and Arsenal, but they are weak this yr.
Englishmen. Stop. You are doing good. Drink your teas. You may reach Real and Barca level in about 30 to 40 yrs. Cheers!
well, he made contact, then made a slight push to try and hurt Arbeloa….that was the right call in my opinion. Nani’s play was quite dangerous
nani red card was not due,the ref have let the whole world to suspect him and i wan to believe that the ref had strong negotiation with madrid. Corruption will never stop.
That first person to comment is not really a Man United fan you can just see the way he writes the team he claims to support. So Nigel Di Jong on Alonso was better huh….A**holes everywhere including Roy Keane!
I’m sorry, but all of you who say it was a red card are clueless. The thing that people failt o grasp is that this was not a challenge between two players, where one has gone in with a high foot, this was Nani taking a ball down from a height with his foot, as many players do all of the time. Unfortunately, he didn’t see Arbeloa behind him and they clashed. The ball was too wide to control the ball with any other part of his body – what was he to do to – just let the ball go? Do we now stop people from doing over head kicks (that’s Rooney’s goal against Man City disallowed for example) or controlling the ball with their feet if it’s over a certain height? – ridiculous! Common sense should prevail, particularly where there is no intention to hurt another player.
At last a ref that isn’t in the Man U pay role obvious sending off manks just can’t win when they have a fair ref they are to reliant on a ref on there side
To Mrso I think ur find over the last ten years English teams have been most successful barcarole are on a downward slope they wouldn’t win anything in England I remember when they got spanked by a poor liverpool side in England football is a mans game Spanish teams are puffs and divers
Why wasn’t it running into his leg, this is soccer where you kick the bloody thing!!
nani is a dirty bugger for doing that definatly a red card!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
Im pissed off by the ref’s call he is a poor ref how on earth can u give a red card for that..It surely was a mistake and Nani had no intention of hurtin Aberloa it was a mistake which deserved a yellow..At least its clear that he helped Real Madrid to sail through to the quater finals
Sorry for Nani, but the replay shown he has no intention of play safe. First he may not know Arbeleo, but after the clash, he intend to kick with his leg. He should bend and keep his leg not kicking again after the clash. He has the intention to play rough. Normally players will react quickly try not to hurt anyone during such situation.
I managed to see the incident in a frame by frame view (because my internet connection sucks!!!… haha) & it does help to see things much clearer.
Let’s start with the way Nani was trying to get the ball… Evra cleared the ball; Nani chased the loose ball. He turned his head, fixed his eyes on the ball (which was still behind him then), put his foot up, measuring where the ball would drop…
On the other side Arbeola also chased the ball, his eyes was also on ball, he preciously measured the ball would drop on his chest if he just jumped a little.
He did & both men clashed.
Pure… pure accident!!!
It is far from calling it “dangerous play”… But what the referee & his assistant saw???… I have no idea?
On Keane… all of Man United fan know he left OT not in a very good term with SAF… So, I thought he was saying this just to annoy Ferguson (& this is not his first time)
flower card
man A jumps into the sky.
man B shoots a bullet into the sky with a gun.
if nothing happens, that’ll be fine.
but if the bullet hits man A, intentionally or not, man B is f***ing going to jail for sure
Fergie shut the f** up and all Cheat United fan, Revenge for october when Chelsea had 2 player sent off in order for you to win. I never been so happy like the way i was last night when Fergie was having his hissy fits.
Chelsea won our match, 10 against 11 when we played Barca at their home so why do you have to complain about one little red card.
i think for nani’s crash yellow would be fair, but after crash he insisted to kick arbeloa. that kick requires red card. referee was fair…
The lack of awareness of Man Utd fans, not to mention Fergie, in not realising the irony of being outraged when a referee decision goes against them is hilarious. Far far worse decsions go in their favour all the time in the Premier league, they are given a good 10 points per season by referees.
As for this decision. You could say it was bordering on harsh but by the letter of the law it is not that controversial, far less dangerous challenges are penalised all the time but of course, being that it’s United all this blood-spitting outrage spews forth. Nani himself knew he was in trouble which is why he layed on the floor feigning injury for two minutes.
It really wasn’t a particularly undue decision intinsically and perhaps if Fergusson had reacted and re-organised his team accoringly instead of lambasting the 4th official for 10 minutes, Man Utd might still be in the competition.
and as has been pointed out it doesn’t matter whether it’s an accident or not. If you jump for some distance through the air studs first it is dangerous play, even if you do not know someone is coming. There is a better than good chance on a football field in a football game that someone will be challenging for the ball with you and that was proved. It’s like driving through a pedestrianised area and then saying “I didn;t see him” after running someone over.
Surely delivering a karate kick to an opponent’s chest must get a red card no matter what the intention behind it? It is dangerous play and even Roy Keane saw it as such!
This is clearly a red card. Those of you who think it isn’t don’t understand or have never played football.
in the premier league you can raise your foot high. not in europe. arbelloa was caught. i’m sure if it was a manure player you would all be screaming for a red?
Manure get too many decisions and fergie time added on anyway.
you can’t play football like that. Simple.
Maybe Manure think they can get away with it like they have been for over 20 yrs.
Correct call made.
Typical UEFA, just proves how pathetic they really are. I know United have their fair share of referee decisions given but that’s pretty much in the Premier league. But here is another example of UEFA flexing their muscles on English teams and screwing them over with refereeing decisions. Chelsea vs Barcelona, Man Utd vs Bayern Munich, Arsenal vs Barcelona are examples.
Rubbing salt in the wounds today, UEFA come out and say they back the red card as the right call, yeah right just because its an English side.
Finally for me Roy Keane is nothing short of a bitter old man who will do anything to have a crack at clubs who shut him out. He attacked Ireland over their disappointment of getting reject from the 2010 World Cup because of Henry’s hand ball. It wasn’t long ago he was bitching for years about a man who put him out due to injury. Now when fans complain he says pretty much get over it. He is pretty much Anti SAF and will have a crack at MUFC any chance he can the ignorant wash up.
what a play nani
In the following video, at minute 0:47, it shows that Nani actually looked back and saw Arbeloa: youtube(dot)com/watch?v=BLITtiHeUyM
For all the idiots who claim this was a red card: why wasn’t Diego Lopez shown a red card in the first half when he “decapitated” Vidic following a United corner kick?
@Luke March “Common sense should prevail”?! Something that United fans don’t seem to have. Did you even watched it without the red tinted glasses on??
As Nani slightly rotates and loses his balance? he stretches his leg to get a good vicious hit on Arbeloa! He would have caused even more damage if he wasn’t out of balance. Straight red! No question!
In reality United did not score a single goal at home, as the own goal was a gift to them from The Specialist one. Yet they call themselves world class. Dont make me laugh
If he’s just ‘trying to control the ball’ and ‘doesn’t know the player is there’, why does he then try to rake his studs / kick out at the player in the air when he does realise he’s there? Did he accidentally think the player was the ball, so he needed to control him? It’s also rubbish to say just because he was looking at the ball, he didn’t know the player was coming. Anyone who’s played football knows you are aware of a player closing in on the ball, whether you are looking up at a dropping ball or not.
Kettle of fish – MUFC fan per chance? Keane’s got the balls to tell it how it is, it’s as simple as that. Nothing to do with UEFA – as he said, ‘did I give the referee a chance to send me off’? Nani clearly did. It’s not so much about the jump to control the ball (though if he thinks there is no-one near him, why doesn’t he keep moving and control the ball further up field as it comes down), it’s clearly the second movement, when he kicks out in to Arbeloa, that the referee has very accurately spotted.
And please, MUFC complaining about a refereeing decision? Do me a favour.
Nice to see Rio Ferdinand showing he’s a fully signed up member of the respect campaign as well. Class.
I have been a united fan for a long time and was outraged when I first saw the play as it was clear that Nani did not notice Arbeloa closing in for the ball. However, watching the replay allowed me to see that Nani followed through with the kick rather than pull back. This makes it a clear red and not a subject up for debate. If he had pulled back then I would have been really furious but he did not. Now lets all cheer up and try to remain hopeful for next time lads.
All you have to do is open your eyes. A challenge like that is a red card every time. His studs are showing way too high. No chance that anyone could get away with that.
No it should have been a yellow u see he is going for the ball and not for arbeloa and you see it seems like arbaloa was about to push nani away forst so i would say either yellow or speaking to.
Didn’t see the match, but coming fresh to this controversy, it’s a clear red card for sheer recklessness, imo.
Roy is a disturbed man and should retire from sport gracefully. He is a complete nob and after looking at the worlds press and pundits, he is the only one who saw it as a sending off. FO Roy, you are not welcome at Old Trafford any more.
I think to many people posting have never played football & some like @murray or this twat BlueBloodofChelsea lol you must be taking the piss, probably cant even lift there leg that high look at every game played any were in the world, everyday of the week & you’ll see players doing just what Nani did to take the ball out of the air, and if you take a good look at the vid you’ll see the Real player can see Nani has his foot up in the air but still runs into him!
& dont make me laugh if you think Chelsea are world class lol
moaning man u fans: watch the video again. do you see how nani pushes arbeloa with his studs after the contact? do you? what was that for, if he had ‘no intent’ to hurt? let alone that the intent is not in the rules.. you may not agree with the rules, but that’s another story. but if a referee is just applying the rules, and it happens to be against your team.. then zip it.
man u was 2-1 aggr. up in that game and all they had to do was to hold. they even showed some attacking mantle in the dying moments. i think the person who ruined the game for man u was their beloved manager ferguson who chose to moan like a little girl instead of acting like a man in a difficult situation. what was he thinking, that the referee will change his decision and call nani back from the change room? in that circumstance, even if wronged by a referee (which was not the case here), a good manager would re-group and adjust the tactics to take advantage of the situation. after all, it was real who was heading towards exit. chelsea defended 10 against 11 barcelona players on nou camp. a team worthy of the champions league title should be able to defend a lead, for 30 min, with a man down.
red card is maybe hard, but excusable.
The ref failed to enforce the dangerous play rule all game. Egs are RM keeper on Vidic, double fist punch direct to the temple, RM defender hooks Rafael in the face, RM defender elbow/forearm strike to Van Persie’s face. All three could have been penalties and red cards. None of them were given as fouls against the RM players. Yes, Nani was dangerous but in the context of the ref’s previous interpretation this was a very biased performance in favor of RM. Nani was the clear breakaway player for MU and had created the goal. Sending him off crucified the MU tactics and led to a professional comeback from RM. Ref’s overall performance of the entire game leads any objective viewer to ask if he is on the take (King Juan Carlos and Turkey – hmm, sounds like the Middle Ages to me). Also, race and national bigotry questions must be brought up with this ref to decide on his legitimacy as a balanced rule enforcer.
Nani was rightly shown the Red card, maybe perhaps he probably didn’t see Arbeloa, but after the contact he just kicked him instead of pulling his leg clear. Referee deserves respect for the decision
look at the action when the ball is about to be cleared , nani turns his head and sees the madrid player , he knew he would be there, always the same with man u ,ref dont give everything to them ,they dont like it,again not good enough,dry your eyes ferguson
Mathew, if you say red cards must be given to any dangerous plays, which i totally agree with, then what would you say about De Jong kicking Xabi Alonso in the fricking chest in 2010 World Cup and all the ref (Howard Webb) did was give him a yellow card…This foul compared to that definitely deserved a yellow and not red…
Do anyone here remember de jong’s tackle on Alonso at the 2012 world cup that looked more a jet li movie where he was all angry at the bad guy a yellow card was given for that…..not even close to what nani did….that was just a yellow card, not saying nani’s tackle was good but a yellow would have be good
Real won’t reach the final. Scoring when there’s only 10 players on the field? Yeah right.
I watched the frame by frame and felt the red card should be for both if it must be given.
I am not a fan of nani neither of Arbeloa. Nani came in with a standard way to hook the ball from a distant and he was running and letting up his leg the way we’ve seen many.
If we say that he should notice Arbeloa who should also need to notice nani’s intention and stopped from crashing into his leg.
When the contact was made, nani was off balanced. His leg got pushed out, was seen to extend to kick Arbeloa. That is a scene that our eyes were not capturing the physical movement of the leg being changed of its path due to Arbeloa coming in at an angle.
Isn’t it a dangerous act of Arbeloa too?
No Yellow or red card is not necessary.
I recall Nigel de Jong in the World Cup final making a similar foul. It was a yellow then, but everyone thought it was deep red. So why are folks upset now that Nani was shown the red card?
There is such a lot of rubbish being spouted by the majority of the posts about the Nani red card by people who obviously do not understand the game or by aggrieved Utd fans or by others from the anyone but Utd camp. The real loser here is the game of football. I for one was watching an enthralling game which was finely balanced and could have gone either way and I was looking forward to seeing more of the same. What happened was what happens in everygame of football that I have ever seen, a player has his eye on the ball and trys to position himself to bring the ball under his control. He is single minded in trying to execute the task. The other player is doing exactly the same thing. The contact was the result of these two players competing there was no malice or intention to injure by either player. The leg was extended and high but the other player was moving towards the raised leg. We will never know the thoughts in either players mind but that is why we have a referee to interpret the players intent and the rules of the game. In my opinion the red card was unjustified because there was no intent to injure and the decision only spoilt what was building to a climax of one of the best matches I have seen over two legs in recent years. Referrees and their governing bodies should remember that the game of football is about the two teams and not the referee. I am gutted that I was deprieved of seeing the climax of the game with 11 men each and feel cheated of that.
Definite red card fair enough he went for the ball but if you watch the footage he clearly tries to stud the player by pushing off him with his boot
Had Arbeloa not jumped then Nani’s boots would have hit him in the face (keep in mind what its made of at the end). Not dangerous play? LOL. Man United fans saying not a red card? Torres challenge vs Cleverly, Given a yellow card then all Man UTD fans called for red card (nearly same challenge). If he hadnt jumped, and hit him in the face i suppose it isnt a red card because he didnt mean it? NO. Red card 100%