Former Crystal Palace and Spurs winger Andros Townsend said that when he saw that there were still 30 minutes in the game remaining after his goal against Manchester United, he was worried Cristiano Ronaldo would show him up.
Andros Townsend said “We were discussing [the celebration] on the coach, the boys were saying ‘would you do it if you scored? I said yeah, but the one thing they said was make sure you are winning or it is late in the game, so Ronaldo doesn’t have a chance to reply. I got a bit carried away, almost buckled and fell on my back, I looked up at the clock and it was 65 minutes! I gave the greatest player half an hour to make me look silly and score the winner. Thankfully he didn’t.” You saw after the final whistle, I ran straight to him. I don’t know what he was muttering, but it wasn’t English,” he added. He was muttering in Portuguese and I asked him three or four times for his shirt and eventually he gave in and said he would give it to me inside. I had to wait inside the dressing room and, thankfully, the kit man was able to sort it for me. That shirt I am going to keep with me.”
The Everton man scored for the Toffees at Old Trafford before mimicking the Portuguese’s famous celebration, jumping into the air and landing with his arms extended behind him. His goal, which came just five minutes after Ronaldo had been brought on by United, cancelled out Anthony Martial’s first-half opener, and it was only after scoring that Townsend admitted he was worried when he saw the scoreboard.
