The BBC’s coverage of Cristiano Ronaldo’s penalty miss caused controversy (Shutterstock)
The BBC have responded after being called a ‘disgrace’ for their Cristiano Ronaldo penalty caption during Portugal’s Euro 2024 last-16 clash with Slovenia.
The 39-year-old was in tears after his penalty in extra time was saved by Jan Oblak during Portugal’s last-16 tie against Slovenia last Monday.
Ronaldo was crying alongside his Portugal teammates during the half-time huddle and was then consoled by Diogo Dalot as he made his way back onto the pitch for the second half of extra time.
During their analysis of Ronaldo’s penalty miss, the BBC captioned the incident as: ‘Misstiano Penaldo’.
And that caption irked former England and Chelsea captain, John Terry, who branded it as a ‘disgrace’.
The former Chelsea and England captain posted a photo of the caption on his Instagram story alongside the message: ‘BBC this is a disgrace!’
John Terry was furious with the BBC’s ‘Misstiano Penaldo’ caption for Cristiano Ronaldo’s penalty miss (Instagram)
However, the BBC insist the 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 hit back at criticism that the BBC’s pundits were ‘too positive’ in their analysis of England’s penalty shootout win 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.’
