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Shocking scenes at Roma as Shakhtar player sparks brawl by ‘pushing’ ball boy
AS ROMA’s Champions League clash with Shakhtar Donetsk was thrown into controversy after a player pushed a ball boy over advertising hoardings.
The Champions League last-16 clash was thrown into controversy
Fecundo Ferreyra appeared to shove the ball boy when demanding the ball be returned to the field.
Ukrainian side Shakhtar saw their 2-1 first-leg lead cancelled out by Edin Dzeko’s strike as Roma reached the last eight for the first time in 10 years via the away goal rule.
Shakhtar had defender Ivan Ordets sent off on 79 minutes after he brought down goalscorer Dzeko and Paulo Fonseca’s side very quickly could have gone down to nine men with Ferreyra sparking an all-out brawl following his sideline scuffle.
A Ferreyra se le ha ido la olla y ha tirado por encima de la valla a un recogepelotas. Le están atendiendo al chaval. Para Undiano solo amarilla pic.twitter.com/ye1QH6b1Bb
— Mikel Recalde (@MikRec) March 13, 2018
The two sets of players had a huge brawl after the incident
Fecundo Ferreyra only received yellow for his apparent push
In attempting to grab the ball back off the ball boy, the former Newcastle Unitedstriker appeared to push the youngster head first over the advertising hoardings.
That expectedly prompted a reaction of outrage among the Roma fans on that side of the stadium as well as the Giallorossi’s players.
But the striker received only a yellow card from Spanish referee Alberto Undiano Mallenco, despite the involvement of first aiders to tend to the ball boy.
80' - HUGE DRAMA! Ferreyra pushes an #ASRoma ballboy over an advertising hoarding... sparking a dispute among the two sets of players. Only a yellow for the forward!#RomaShakhtar 1⃣-0⃣ (*2-2)
— AS Roma English (@ASRomaEN) March 13, 2018
The incident bore some similarity to the one which saw Eden Hazard sent off in January 2013 for kicking out at a Swansea City ball boy in Chelsea’s Carabao Cup semi-final.
Ferreyra had an evening to forget, wasting an earlier opportunity to make it 1-0 on the night and 2-0 on aggregate with Roma’s Federico Fernandez - having allowed Ferreyra through on goal - recovering to force him to shoot wide.
Roma will learn their quarter-final opponents when the draw for the last eight is conducted on Friday.