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‘Touch of class’: Ronaldo ‘sportsmanship’ shown to injured Cavani creates talking point

30 Jun, 2018 20:58

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The world sighed a collective “aw” when Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo helped injured two-goal hero Edinson Cavani off the pitch during the Portugal versus Uruguay World Cup last 16 match on Saturday.

When Cavani was left hobbling off with just over quarter of an hour of normal time remaining at Fisht Stadium in Sochi, Ronaldo swiftly jogged over to the Uruguay hitman to help him off the pitch.

Dozens of Twitter users called the action a show of “true sportsmanship” and said it demonstrated a “touch of class” from the Real Madrid winger.

Gotta love this sportsmanship: Ronaldo helping an injured Cavani pic.twitter.com/vVB0MKZcbr
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) June 30, 2018

Cristiano Ronaldo helping an injured Edinson Cavani off the pitch. Touch of class. #WorldCup #URU #POR #URUPOR pic.twitter.com/UkHOZvU2XM
— 🇺🇾 vs. 🇵🇹 Football Tweet (@Football__Tweet) June 30, 2018

Awww Ronaldo so cute and fair-play helping Cavani!!!!!!! #WorldCup pic.twitter.com/lfSz1SIZZm
— LorenaPopa🕵️‍♀️ 🏆🥖👑 (@popalorena) June 30, 2018

Ronaldo helping injured Cavani in getting off the field ❤️ #POR #URU #URUPOR #WorldCup pic.twitter.com/6gUxVkCRZe
— 9GAG Football ⚽ (@9GAGFootball) June 30, 2018

Ronaldo showing great sportsmanship, helping Cavani off.#URUPOR #WorldCup pic.twitter.com/fXHiU3KwtX
— Sporting News (@sportingnews) June 30, 2018

Great sportsmanship from Ronaldo by helping Cavani off the pitch after he suffered an injury. Fair play. pic.twitter.com/EEbBjr2Aaf
— Ryan. 🔴 (@Vintage_Utd) June 30, 2018

Yet another PR stunt by Ronaldo! Helping Cavani off the pitch an attempt to gain the headlines! I'll tell you right now, he didn't actually mean to help him!
— Ultra 🇺🇾🇺🇾 (@UltraAutistic) June 30, 2018

🇺🇾 Edinson Cavani goes off injured.🇵🇹 Cristiano Ronaldo helps him off the pitch.💛 The Beautiful Game. 👏 pic.twitter.com/vFHjwHRV32
— SPORF (@Sporf) June 30, 2018

However, there were those who took a more cynical stance on the matter, insisting Ronaldo was simply ensuring Cavani left the pitch in a timely manner instead of timewasting.

If you are crediting Ronaldo with great sportsmanship for helping Cavani off the field you must also believe in Santa and the Easter Bunny and omg ur so cute!
— Sam's Army (@samsarmy) June 30, 2018

To put in perspective : Ronaldo helping Cavani out of play area is not sportsmanship but to hasten his exit & save time.Let's have that clear!#PORURU #URUPOR
— hum_bolega (@hum_bolega) June 30, 2018

I can't quite believe people are actually believing that Ronaldo helping Cavani off the pitch was an act of kindness. He was simply saving time. The actual act of sportsmanship was an injured Cavani deciding to limp off vs lie down, wait for the physio & waste some time.#URUPOR
— The Zucker Doctor (@DoctorLFC) June 30, 2018

Messi's highlight of the day was assisting two goals against one of the lethal teams of worldcup.Ronaldo's highlight of the day was helping cavani to reach the sideline.
— #1 (@messiphile) June 30, 2018

In the end, Cavani’s two goals were enough to sink Portugal 2-1 and cancel out a Pepe equalizer and send Ronaldo home. Uruguay will now play France in the quarterfinal on July 6 in Nizhny Novgorod.