The BBC has responded after facing criticism for their caption regarding Cristiano Ronaldo’s missed penalty during Portugal’s Euro 2024 last-16 match against Slovenia.
Ronaldo, 39, was seen in tears after his penalty was saved by Jan Oblak in extra time during the match last Monday.
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He was emotional during the half-time huddle with his Portugal teammates and was comforted by Diogo Dalot as they returned to the pitch for the second half of extra time.
During the analysis of Ronaldo’s missed penalty, the BBC captioned the incident as: ‘Misstiano Penaldo.’
This caption angered former England and Chelsea captain John Terry, who called it a ‘disgrace.’
Terry shared a photo of the caption on his Instagram story with the message: ‘BBC this is a disgrace!’ However, the BBC maintains that their analysis was ‘consistently respectful’ towards Ronaldo.
The statement from the BBC read: ‘The caption was simply intended as a play on words, which we have done many times before on Match Of The Day analysis graphics. There was no offence intended toward Cristiano Ronaldo.
‘In fact, throughout the programme we spoke favourably about Ronaldo on a number of occasions, including:
‘1. In the pre-match build-up when Jose Fonte highlighted Ronaldo’s dedication to training, saying it’s why ‘he’s one of the best-ever’.
‘2. At half-time Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer did a long analysis run on Ronaldo’s movement, praising it as “absolutely fantastic”.
‘3. After the penalty shoot-out, Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer both referenced Ronaldo’s courage and self-belief to step forward and take a penalty.
‘At no point were the pundits overly critical of Ronaldo and in the context of the programme overall, the tone was consistently respectful towards him.
‘However, we appreciate some viewers were unhappy with the graphic and the feedback has been passed on to the production team to help inform their work going forward.’
Elsewhere, Micah Richards has fired back at criticism that the BBC’s pundits were ‘too positive’ in their analysis of England’s penalty shootout victory over Switzerland on Saturday.
‘When I said England were brilliant I’m comparing them to the previous four games,’ Richards explained.
‘I’m not saying they were the finished article.’
