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Football

14th Mar 2018

Shakhtar Donetsk forward booked for altercation with ball boy

The young lad made sure the referee saw what happened

Darragh Murphy

Bad form, Facundo Ferreyra. Bad form.

Tempers flared late on in Shakhtar Donetsk’s Champions League Round of 16 second leg clash with Roma as the Ukrainian side desperately chased a goal.

Roma claimed a 1-0 home win on Tuesday night and, thanks to their away goal two weeks ago, the Italian club secured a place in the last eight.

The visitors’ Ivan Ordec was sent off with 10 minutes to go which steepened the already uphill task and just 60 seconds later, Ferreyra lost his head ever so slightly.

Shakhtar’s forward was very eager to get the ball back after it had been kicked out of play but he let his keenness get the better of him by giving the ball boy a little shove at the Stadio Olimpico.

While the push was definitely out of order and the 27-year-old – whose nickname is Chucky – was rightly booked, the ball boy did make the most of the altercation by throwing himself over the advertising hoarding to make sure the referee saw the incident.

No footballers should lay their hands on a ball boy, no matter how frustrated they may be, although this particular young lad can count himself lucky that he wasn’t on the receiving end of Operaio’s Jefferson Reis’ aggression.