Nani’s Headbutt: the Video

By: Laurie | May 4th, 2008

Best quote from this video?

“I think Lucas mighta provoked him a bit, and Lucas has gone down a bit easy.”

No kidding. But in the end, it’s Nani with the red. It didn’t affect this game, which ended with a 4-1 ManU thumping of West Ham. But let’s hope that Nani’s suspension doesn’t affect the title race. (Or does, if you’re a Chelsea fan.)

So how did Manchester United’s ten-man game play out? The Telegraph has this great description:

Nani not only risked putting his side’s title at risk, he ruined the game as a spectacle since United started playing more back passes than the old Liverpool sides of the Seventies and Eighties, conserving their energy, switching off the showboating and putting the flair on a low light. West Ham posed so little threat, however, that Michael Carrick could not resist a forward run and a long-range shot that deflected in off Neill.

[via 101 Great Goals]

Some Related Stories:

Category: English Premier League

« The Scottish invasion of MLS | Home | Daily Dose 5.04.08 »

The Offside RSS Feeds

elle

agreed, even as a United fan sometimes Nani's actions make me shake my head
jboy3533

As a Utd fan, I must say Nani's theatric display was deplorable and he deserved the booking on that alone. There was some poetic justice on Lucas Neills easy dive as he was responsible for deflecting a goal into his own net
A

Outside the playing field Lucas' initial actions can very well be deemed as assault.
A

I don't get it, why do players expect to get in someone's face and not get some back?

And I'm saying this as an Aussie.
nick

robert green trying to pick up nani is my favorite part of this. he is having no part of nani falling down. some comedy but an ugly side of the sport. if man utd were to lose the title because of this, bye nani. oh well, no serious harm done. and we will always have the youtube video of this.
Mat

Even though I am a United fan..I DO NOT LIKE this guy..you should have seen him in the Chelsea game...just so selfish..kills the game all the time..has just too less confidence in his teammates (or should I say is too selfish again) ...he dives ..and now he head-butts people too..My only hope is that he has a very very good coaching staff that will never let him go the wrong route...he will be fine in a couple of seasons, but before that we all will have to tolerate this guy...
Cerberus

Looking at it again, it looks like Tevez was trying to gently lead Lucas away before tempers overflowed and was a bit slow on the draw.

With that in mind, the scene totally plays like one of those "proper/improper" examples of sportsmanship. When tempers overflow, try to aid and calm down the parties, do not pretend to be the victim and roll around like a retarded monkey even after it's clear you're fooling no one. Perhaps Sir Alex can show that with arrows and an announcer voice as Nani is sitting in the locker room considering why he's not playing in the last game of the season.
Cerberus

Wow that's pretty bad. Not the incident which was essentially a love tap, but Nani's dive and bullshit act. With luck this will cross over into next season when every referee will look to each of his dives with an enormous grain of salt.

I'm really interested in what Tevez was hoping to accomplish. He doesn't move until after the headbutt and Lucas seems more surprised by Tevez's grab than the headbutt itself. Was Tevez trying to help him down or help him up and accidentally threw him on the ground or was he trying to throw him on the ground or did he belatedly try to pull Lucas away from Nani. I'm genuinely curious.
Ian Rose

How incredibly dumb. Nani clearly deserved sending off, and should frankly have something added on for that ridiculous dive after the headbutt. Maybe Lucas did fall down easily, but at least he got a tap - Nani gave a tap, waited a second, then fell down to try to distract the ref. Sad to see from such a good team.