Cristiano Ronaldo appears to spit on Man Utd teammate Anthony Elanga at full time in their draw against Southampton on Saturday.
Manchester United could only come away with a point against the Saints, but after the final whistle, it featured a bizarre incident in which Ronaldo appeared to spit in the direction of Elanga.
Footage from BT Sport shows CR7 spit while standing behind the teenage forward, with some of the saliva seemingly landing on the latter’s shirt.
Elanga is completely oblivious to what had happened, but the footage went viral on social media, leaving viewers baffled as to what they had just witnessed.
Did Cristiano Ronaldo spit on Elanga? pic.twitter.com/q29tT5fqpH
— Tego Sigel (@TegoSigel) February 12, 2022
It was yet another disappointing result for the Red Devils, with Ronaldo failing to score for the sixth consecutive game – his worst goal drought in club football in 12 years.
Jadon Sancho found the net, his second goal in three appearances in all competitions, to put Ralf Rangnick’s men in front after 25 minutes, only for Che Adams to cancel that out putting the visitors level two minutes after the restart.
The draw left manchesterUnited fifth in the Premier League table level on points with West Ham United and seven points behind third-placed Chelsea.
player ratings
Man Utd: De Gea (6), Dalot (6), Varane (6), Maguire (4), Shaw (6), McTominay (6), Pogba (6), Sancho (8), Fernandes (6), Rashford (6), Ronaldo (5).
Subs: Elanga (6), Lingard (6).
Southampton: Forster (7), Walker-Peters (8), Bednarek (6), Salisu (6), Perraud (8), Ward-Prowse (7), Romeu (7), Armstrong (5), Elyounoussi (7) , Adams (8), Broiah (8).
Subs: Stephens (6), Livramento (6), Diallo (n/a).
Man of the match: Broja
“Unfortunately, it was very similar to the last couple of games,” said Rangnick afterwards.
“A very good first half, very good first half hour. We did all the things we intended to do with the counter attacks and the deep runs. We created, scored a great goal.
“Then we stopped doing that. At the end of the first half we didn’t do those things any more and then in the second we lost a bit of shape.
“In the first 20 minutes we were struggling to defend, that happened in transition when they scored their goal. In the last 20 minutes we had great chances to score again, expected goals was in our favor but we didn’t get the result.
“We told the players they needed to be aggressive [at half-time] but in the end it is different to perform like that on the pitch.”
‘It’s very enjoyable with this team,’ Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl said. ‘We are really good to watch to be honest. It’s fantastic from our side. We always have a solution and a new way of playing and this is good to watch and the way we want to go.’
When asked if he was happy with the result, Hasenhuttl admitted: ‘Yes, especially because we had one day less to recover [than Man Utd] after our game on Wednesday.
‘In the first half, we weren’t fresh enough; it takes a little bit to find your rhythm and then you have to start running and playing football.
‘We looked much better in the second half. They had a better first half, we had a better second, so we will take the draw.
‘The problem is when you want to press and you are not fresh, you are always a step behind. It is easy for the opponent. But the longer the game went, the more energy we got. It takes time and this is normal.
‘It’s super tough to play Wednesday night and Saturday lunchtime, especially against such a team but we had chances to win.
‘We scored immediately after half-time with a beautiful goal and had two or three massive chances.
‘So we had good chances to win today. Absolutely, Fraser does a fantastic job and has a big part of this point today.’
Twitter users reacted after Cristiano Ronaldo appears to spit on Man Utd teammate Anthony Elanga at full time…
@troyt476: Wtf
@willofdeeznuts_: Shot on target for Ronaldo finally
@aldidot: Jamie Carragher signature move!
