Ron in a rage as ref disallows 'winner'

BELGRADE • Portugal coach Fernando Santos was left dumbfounded that what he saw as a clear goal scored by Cristiano Ronaldo in Saturday's World Cup qualifier against Serbia could be ruled out.

With the scores level at 2-2 in Belgrade, the forward thought he had won the Group A game in the 93rd minute. However, without goal-line technology or video assistant referee (VAR) in use, officials decided Serbia defender Stefan Mitrovic had cleared the ball even though images showed it had crossed the line.

A fuming Ronaldo was booked for his protests and at the final whistle stormed from the pitch, throwing his captain's armband to the ground.

"We scored a goal that was not given when the ball went in," Santos told Portuguese broadcaster RTP. "In a match of this level, that isn't possible."

Ronaldo later posted on his Instagram page: "I always give and will give everything for my country, that will never change.

"But there are difficult times to deal with, especially when we feel that an entire nation is being harmed."

The match had started brightly for the Portuguese with two first-half headed goals by Diogo Jota.

However, Aleksandar Mitrovic pulled one back for the hosts seconds after the restart and Filip Kostic levelled the scores on the hour mark.

Nikola Milenkovic was sent off a minute into added time before the key moment of the match denied Ronaldo a last-gasp winner.

Portugal midfielder Danilo Pereira was equally stunned by the decision to not award the goal.

"We tried to get a third goal and we managed to do it but the referee didn't allow it although in my opinion it was clearly a goal," he said.

It was not the first controversial moment during these European World Cup qualifiers, after Spain were also enraged by the lack of a VAR which they felt would not have given Greece a penalty - which they converted - in their 1-1 draw on Thursday.

Jota, however, believed that Portugal had only themselves to blame for squandering a two-goal lead.

"What happened can't happen at this level because we switched off and let Serbia draw level 15 minutes into the second half," he said.

"We failed to kill the game off and we can't let that happen again."

Serbia coach Dragan Stojkovic praised his team for a spirited fightback.

"The word 'surrender' is not part of our vocabulary and the result as well as the performance shows that we are on the right track," he said.

"Don't forget we were up against the European champions but I still hoped we could win the match."

The result left Serbia top of the group on four points from two games ahead of Portugal on goals scored, with Luxembourg behind them on three points after a shock 1-0 win in Ireland.

Serbia next visit Azerbaijan tomorrow while Portugal are away to Luxembourg.

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE