United urge Uefa to act after Ronaldo 'laser beam' incident
Thursday, 21 Feb 2008 13:11
Cristiano Ronaldo was allegedly targetted by a fan with a laser pen
Manchester United officials have urged Uefa to investigate after Cristiano Ronaldo was dazzled by a laser beam at Lyon's Stade Gerland last night.
The Portuguese international was allegedly the target of what appeared to be some form of laser pen inside the stadium as the two teams were warming up before kick-off in the 1-1 draw.
And Red Devils boss Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed the club has contacted European football's governing body with a view to having the matter looked at more closely in the form of television pictures from the Champions League tie.
"We reported the matter to Uefa before the game," Ferguson said.
"We noticed it in the warm-up and [Uefa] are aware of it."
Despite the furore, and the fact that he sat out the FA Cup fifth round tie against
Arsenal at the weekend, Ronaldo went on to play a full 90 minutes.
However, he did appear to have a relatively quiet game by his own high standards and only troubled Lyon goalkeeper Gregory Coupet once with a rasping free-kick.
Striker Wayne Rooney, who looked somewhat isolated in his lone-striker role with Ronaldo looking off-colour, hailed the impact of United's substitutes Nani and Carlos Tevez - the scorer of the visitors' late equaliser.
"I thought Nani came on and was immense," the England international said.
"Carlos came on and did what he does best - he was getting on the ball and getting into the box and creating chances and luckily for us tonight the goal has come.
"Lyon are a good team and we know we have to concentrate 100 per cent to beat them at Old Trafford."