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8th July 2024
04:18pm BST
The BBC have responded to viewers who were left angered by a pun about Cristiano Ronaldo.
During their coverage of Portugal's last 16 win against Slovenia the broadcaster made a light-hearted joke about Ronaldo's missed penalty in extra time.
Ronaldo was left in tears moments before the penalty shootout but regained his composure to score later on as they progressed to the quarter finals.
While analysing the 39-year-old's performance the team looked back on his missed penalty to which the BBC captioned the replay with 'Misstiano Pennaldo'.
What was meant to be a fun joke resulted in heavy backlash from Ronaldo fans.
John Terry even labelled it a disgrace in a social media rant.
Following the intense backlash, the BBC have addressed the situation for the first time and insisted it was nothing more than a play on words.
A spokesperson told The Sun: "The caption was simply intended as a play on words, which we have done many times before on Match Of The Day analysis graphics. There was no offence intended toward Cristiano Ronaldo."
They then proceeded to list a number of moments they gave the Al Nassr star plenty of praise.
"At no point were the pundits overly critical of Ronaldo and in the context of the programme overall, the tone was consistently respectful towards him," the statement added.
"However, we appreciate some viewers were unhappy with the graphic and the feedback has been passed on to the production team to help inform their work going forward."
Portugal were then knocked out of Euro 2024 by France in yet another penalty shootout. Ronaldo also confirmed that this would be his final European Championships as a player.
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