Fernandes sends apology to Carragher as Man Utd star issues message | Football | Sport

Bruno Fernandes has offered an apology to Jamie Carragher after bringing up his penalty miss for England against Portugal at the 2006 World Cup. In a conversation with Wayne Rooney, Fernandes recalled celebrating wildly as a youngster when Carragher’s spot kick was saved by Ricardo, who also denied Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard in the quarter-final shootout.

The Liverpool legend initially converted his penalty but was forced to retake it after failing to wait for the referee’s whistle. On his second attempt, Ricardo saved the spot-kick and Portugal booked their place in the semi-finals, where they ultimately eliminated by France.

Rooney had been sent off earlier in the contest for stamping on Ricardo Carvalho, with Cristiano Ronaldo infamously winking at his then-Manchester United teammate as he walked off the pitch in Germany.

Speaking on The Wayne Rooney Show, Fernandes said: “Obviously 2006, everyone remembers because of Cristiano and Wayne’s little bit of fire.

“(It) ends up with Jamie Carragher missing the penalty. I had to say this – sorry, Jamie,” Fernandes admitted before turning to the camera.

“I had to get a little bit off you, you get on me all the time. I can get on you with that penalty.

“When I miss a penalty, don’t say anything about it, please.”

In 2021, Carragher spoke openly about his own personal anguish after Bukayo Saka, Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford suffering racist abuse for missing penalties in the Euro 2020 final, reports the Manchester Evening News.

Writing in his column for The Telegraph, the former Liverpool centre-back said: “Sven Goran Eriksson summoned me and gave me one job: to dispatch a spot-kick as convincingly as I had in every practise session.

“I had not missed a penalty in six weeks. ‘You’ll take the fourth’, Eriksson told me. Not a problem. England were 2-1 down by the time I made that 40-yard walk, but I was feeling confident staring at Portugal’s No. 1 Ricardo.

“Knowing precisely where to place the ball, I struck it sweetly to the right, sending the goalkeeper the wrong way – my first touch of the game. There was a momentary sense of relief.

“Then the referee blew his whistle. The Argentine official, Horacio Marcelo Elizondo, said I had taken it too soon.

“Take two. Now I was engaged in a game of bluff with Ricardo, wrongly presuming he would think I would try to score in exactly the same way. I changed my mind and went left. So did he, pushing away my attempt.”