Debate: did Ronaldo deserve to be sent off?

Cristiano Ronaldo was told last night that he had only himself to blame for the red card that left Manchester United hanging on for a 1-0 victory away to Manchester City yesterday. Sir Alex Ferguson claimed that Ronaldo was “trying to protect his face” when he earned his second yellow card for a deliberate handball, but Mark Hughes, the City manager, ridiculed the case for the defence. “If he thought the ball was going to hit him in the face, why didn’t he head it?” Hughes said.

The fourth red card of Ronaldo’s career at Old Trafford - and the second at the City of Manchester Stadium, where he was sent off in January 2006 for a lunge at Andrew Cole - left United to face anxious moments in the final quarter of the game yesterday. Ronaldo will serve a one-match suspension, which, fortunately for United, coincides with the Carling Cup quarter-final tie at home to Blackburn Rovers on Wednesday, in which he would not have played. But while Howard Webb, the referee, appeared to have little alternative but to send him off, Ferguson took issue with the decision.

“If I get into refereeing decisions, I’ll be here all day,” Ferguson said. “He [Ronaldo] was trying to protect himself from the ball hitting him in the face. He thought he had heard a whistle, he got a little push as well and it is not as if he punched the ball. If that had been outside the box, it would have been a free kick and nothing else. But the crowd played a part and he got sent off.”

It was an argument that left Hughes, a former United forward, scratching his head. “I don’t think the referee had any choice,” he said. “I don’t know what reason he will give for doing it but if he says the ball was going to hit him in the face, why didn’t he head it? It is a soft sending-off, but it was a second bookable offence and he had to go.”

Hughes had no argument about the result, saying that United deserved the three points earned through Wayne Rooney’s goal in the 43rd minute, but he did take issue with the visiting team’s apparent strategy to combat the threat of Shaun Wright-Phillips. Of the six yellow cards shown to United’s players - including Ronaldo’s two - four were for fouls on Wright-Phillips. The crime count will earn United an automatic fine from the FA.

“If I try to be diplomatic here, I think that Manchester United have great experience and sometimes they use that by breaking the momentum of attacks and stopping people in their tracks,” Hughes said. “Shaun Wright-Phillips was stopped on numerous occasions and I would suggest that Manchester United felt that and fouled him in possession. That shows maybe in their approach to the game. On occasions Shaun was fouled in good positions, but that happens.”

The victory strengthens United’s position in the Barclays Premier League table, where they lie in third position, five points behind Chelsea, who lost 2-1 at home to Arsenal, and Liverpool, who can go three points clear by beating West Ham United this evening. “It was a massive win,” Rooney said. “Not the fact that it was against Manchester City, but because three points are vital, especially with Chelsea and Liverpool playing after us.” The goal was the 100th of Rooney’s club career with Everton and United, but he said that he was not preoccupied by the milestone. “I was more excited about scoring away at City and for it to turn out to be the winning goal is pleasing,” he said.