By Chris Wright
Pies would’ve thought you be hard pressed to find anyone who didn’t feel at least a flicker of joy watching Javier Hernandez celebrate like mad after scoring the 88th-minute winning goal in a Champions League quarter-final for Real Madrid last night.
After prodding home Cristiano Ronaldo’s cross, Chicharito – who was making the rarest of starts for Real – began welling up as he charged over to revel with the fans in the corner, eventually leaving the field in tears after being subbed off in injury time.
It seemed like a quite delightful display of overawed euphoria from a goalscorer who has been starved of his lifeblood this season, but there was at least one man who refused to get swept up in the hysteria.
Thierry Henry was not pleased with Hernandez’s celebrations. Not pleased at all.
The Sky Sports pundit’s major bone of contention was that Chicharito didn’t show enough gratitude to Cristiano Ronaldo, who jinked his way through the Atletico box before laying on the relatively simple tap-in for his strike partner.
“He had a couple of chances in the game before that but I can tell you he (Hernandez) can thank Ronaldo tonight,” Henry grumbled, stern as you like.
“I know he went on to celebrate alone and everything but he can thank Ronaldo. For me, he has to. That is, for me, Ronaldo’s goal.
“What I don’t like after is (he celebrated) like he won the World Cup. Turn around and celebrate with Ronaldo.”
Bloody hell. Who widdled on his chips?
Henry, of course, being an ex-striker who never celebrated any of his goals with a vainglorious tableaux of arrogance…
Why not just let Chicha have his moment? Ronaldo did all the heavy lifting, sure – but hasn’t he been splashed all over enough newspaper front pages these past few years?
What a strange thing to take issue with. Perhaps Henry was just positioning himself as being ornery for the sake of being ornery, well aware that his £4million-a-year Sky punditry hasn’t exactly been electrically insightful so far?