Bruno Fernandes set up Cristiano Ronaldo to score for Portugal against Uzbekistan at the World Cup, with Roy Keane full of praise for the Manchester United captain
Roy Keane put his spat with Bruno Fernandes to bed and hailed the Manchester United star as the world’s finest at delivering perfect passes in transition.
Keane made the striking assertion about the United captain after he teed up Cristiano Ronaldo to score for Portugal against Uzbekistan. Roberto Martinez’s side were already ahead 2-0 courtesy of strikes from Ronaldo and Nuno Mendes when the Al-Nassr forward netted a third.
But the goal arrived after Fernandes threaded the ball through the defensive lines to enable Ronaldo to finish clinically into the far corner of the net. And responding to the goal at half-time on ITV, Keane said of Fernandes: “He is by far the best player in the world at that!”
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Keane’s admiration for the midfielder follows his revelation earlier this month that he had a ‘lovely chat’ with the United skipper after a recent misunderstanding over the Premier League assist record.
Keane suggested Fernandes had stated in an interview that he had opted to pass rather than shoot during his chase of the Premier League assist record. However, the Portuguese attacker’s actual words were the reverse.
Fernandes pointed out the inaccurate statement by Keane during an appearance on The Diary of a CEO podcast, where he also expressed a wish to discuss the 54-year-old’s misunderstood remarks with him. A conversation then occurred between the pair, with Keane, speaking on the Stick to Football podcast, subsequently confirming they had resolved the matter.
He initially joked: “He apologised, I forgave him, no problem, but no, it was a good chat.”
Before he added: “No, there was a reaction after what we said on the podcast a few weeks ago, and he reached out to me and wanted a chat… I called him, and we had a lovely chat.
“A lovely chat about a bit of everything, but it was nice because when we do podcasts or games, sometimes you think you say something afterwards, and you communicate something, and it doesn’t come across properly, so people get upset, and he said he wanted to talk to me.
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“And we had a nice, mature conversation. It was lovely. A lovely chat. I like having boundaries with players. I don’t want to be speaking to players every few weeks or their agents, I don’t want to go down that road, but every now and then a player might reach out, so I think it was important I spoke to him.
“There has been lots going on and lots reported. He’s obviously a big player for United. I’m an ex-United player, and I think the idea of this communicating and having a proper conversation – I really enjoyed it. Hopefully, I think he did as well. Nice chat about a bit of everything, and I felt better afterwards.”
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