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Hughes: Ref had no choice over Ronaldo red

01/12/2008

Manchester City manager Mark Hughes has claimed referee Howard Webb had "no choice" other than to send off Cristiano Ronaldo for a deliberate handball in the Manchester derby.

As he jumped to challenge for a corner, Ronaldo inexplicably raised his arms to block the ball as it reached him - claiming he heard a whistle from Webb.

However, the official took a dim view of the player's actions - issuing him with a second booking of the game, which resulted in a red card with 20 minutes still to play at Eastlands.

And Hughes agreed with the referee's decision, saying: "I don't think the referee had any choice. I thought he was going to catch it at one point.

"It was a clear handball. It was a soft sending off but clearly a second bookable offence.

"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?"

Despite being without one of their top players, United held on for a 1-0 win against their local rivals.

And Ronaldo's manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, backed his player over the incident, saying it was a genuine error and questioning whether the winger was also fouled.

"He has tried to shield the ball from hitting his face, and he might get a shove in the back as well," the United boss explained.

"He thought he had heard the referee's whistle. The crowd played a part and he got sent off. But I'm not going to get into it because we could be here all day."

Ferguson added: "Sometimes you have to overcome things and we overcame a big handicap. We have proved ourselves."