Bruno Fernandes has apologized to Jamie Carragher for his penalty miss during England’s 2006 World Cup match against Portugal. In a conversation with Wayne Rooney, Fernandes recalled his younger days being overjoyed when Ricciardo saved Carragher’s spot-kick, denying Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard in the quarter-final shootout.
The Liverpool legend initially converted a penalty, but was forced to take it again without waiting for the referee’s whistle. Ricardo saved the spot-kick on the second attempt, giving Portugal a place in the semi-finals, but they were ultimately eliminated by France.
Rooney was sent off early in the game for stomping on Ricardo Carvalho, and Cristiano Ronaldo infamously winked at his then-Manchester United team-mate as he left the pitch in Germany.
Speaking on the Wayne Rooney Show, Fernandes said: “Obviously everyone remembers 2006 because of that little bit of heat between Cristiano and Wayne.
“(It resulted in) Jamie Carragher missing a penalty. I had to say this, but I’m sorry, Jamie,” Fernandes admitted before facing the cameras.
“I had to move away from you a little bit, you always attack me. I can attack you with that penalty.
“When you miss a penalty, don’t say anything about it.”
In 2021, Carragher spoke openly about his personal struggles after being subjected to racist abuse for missing a penalty by Bukayo Saka, Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford in the Euro 2020 final, the Manchester Evening News reported.
“Sven-Goran Eriksson called me up and gave me one job, and that was to take the spot-kick as convincingly as I did in every training session,” the former Liverpool centre-back said in a column for the Telegraph.
“I hadn’t missed a penalty in six weeks. ‘You’ll take the fourth one,’ Eriksson told me. There was no problem. England were 2-1 down when I walked 40 yards, but I was looking at Portugal’s number one Ricardo and feeling confident.”
“Knowing exactly where to put the ball, I hit it sweetly to the right and sent the goalkeeper the wrong way. That was my first touch of the game. There was a moment of relief.”
“Then the referee blew the whistle. Horacio Marcelo Elizondo, the Argentina captain, said I had made too quick a decision.
“Take 2. Now I was bluffing with Ricardo. Ricardo had incorrectly guessed that I was going to score in the exact same way. I changed my mind and went to the left. So did he, pushing my attempt away.”
