Many reacted to the BBC's reference to Cristiano Ronaldo's penalty against Slovenia at the European Championship. A week after the match, the national broadcaster responded to the criticism.
The BBC denied in a statement that it was trying to mock Ronaldo. In a round of 16 recap, the 39-year-old's penalty miss was labelled “Mistiano Penaldo” on television graphics.
– It was just a play on words, as we have done many times before in our Match of the Day analysis graphics. It was not intended to mock Cristiano Ronaldo, the BBC reported. Daily Telegraph.
– The truth is that we spoke positively about Ronaldo several times during the program. The statement went on to say that our experts never criticised him unjustifiably at any time.
Former England captain John Terry was among those who criticised the Ronaldo cartoon. In an Instagram post, he highlighted the pun, calling it a “disgrace”.
Portugal's match against Slovenia remained goalless and a penalty shootout was needed to decide the two teams. There, Ronaldo scored the winning goal, making it 3-0.
The quarter-final match against France also ended in a 0-0 draw. Ronaldo scored Portugal's first penalty, but Joao Felix missed a chance that paved the way for France's 5-3 victory.
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