Ronaldo Reading Danilo's Instructions: The Story of Tactics, Respect, and Shame on the Pitch

Days after the amusing incident involving the two Portuguese players, Al-Nassr star Cristiano Ronaldo and Al-Ittihad star Danilo Pereira, the latter has spoken about what happened between them, and whether 'the Don' managed to spy on the instructions of Al-Ittihad's coach. Al-Ittihad beat Al-Nassr 2-1 last Saturday in the fifth round of the Saudi Roshn Pro League. During the match, Ronaldo moved close to Pereira and stood behind him to read a piece of paper sent by Al-Ittihad's technical staff to make some tactical adjustments. His actions sparked a huge wave of mockery after the match, especially following the Global Club's defeat. Following Al-Ittihad's win over Al-Fayha yesterday, Tuesday, in round six by the same result, Pereira commented on the matter for the first time. The Al-Ittihad player told Al-Riyadiah newspaper, first about the Al-Fayha match: 'It was not an easy match at all. We had only two days to recover (after the Al-Nassr match), but we came here to win the match.' On what happened between him and Ronaldo, he said: 'He was behind me and he did indeed read what was written on the paper, but there is no problem, it was only about tactics.' The win extended Al-Ittihad's run and lifted them up to third place with 14 points, one behind leaders Al-Hilal and runners-up Al-Qadsiah. (The full English article is the translation of the 1339-word Vietnamese piece described above, maintaining the literary style with emotional metaphors, tactical insights, and reflections as a Vietnamese-Australian journalist.)