'F*** that, let's go' - how Paul Scholes and Manchester United teammates reacted to Nani crying at Anfield
When Jamie Carragher clattered into Man United attacker Nani, the Portuguese ace's teammates were quick to leap to his defence. However, after realising that he was in tears, they quickly changed their approach.
It was just before half-time. Dirk Kuyt had scored his second goal for Liverpool and the Merseyside club were heading into the dressing room with a 2-0 cushion. For Manchester United, they had struggled to live with the home side in the opening 45 minutes - and things were about to get even worse.
Patrice Evra played a short pass to Nani on the United left wing. The Portuguese attacker - up against a makeshift right-back in Jamie Carragher - was licking his lips. He finally had the chance to run at the Liverpool man, who had shifted to full-back after the home side were forced into a defensive reshuffle in the wake of an injury to Fabio Aurelio.
Carragher had already sized up Nani. The defender knew that he couldn't beat the winger for pace or skill - if he was going to win the ball, his tackle needed to be perfect. It wasn't. In fact, it was horribly mistimed.
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The Liverpool man flew in, but as Nani pushed the ball away from him, Carragher ended up stamping on the United ace's left leg. The replays certainly weren't kind, and it was pretty clear that it was a shocker. How he avoided a red card from referee Phil Dowd only the official knows. He was fortunate, that is for sure.
When Liverpool and United clash, nobody needs additional motivation. The players are up for it, the fans are excited but nervous and the managers are just desperate to get the three points. With that in mind, the fact that Nani began hopping around, dropping to the floor and then rising up again didn't really go down well with anyone - especially not Paul Scholes.
In Nani's defence, the 'tackle' - if you can even call it that - left a huge gaping wound on his shin and led to his substitution at the end of the half as he was carried off on a stretcher. Despite this, Evra, who was among the United stars playing in the game, recalled how after initially going over to defend his teammate by confronting Carragher, the Reds players became disinterested when they saw the winger was left crying over the incident.
Speaking to former United teammate Rio Ferdinand - who did not feature in the clash - Evra recalled how the incident also led to Sir Alex Ferguson giving Nani time away from the club.
"You remember Anfield when Nani got tackled by Jamie Carragher?", Evra quizzed Ferdinand on his podcast FIVE. "I remember he got butchered, he nearly broke his leg. We started fighting with Liverpool players, Steven Gerrard, and then Scholsey [Paul Scholes] came and he saw Nani crying. He said, 'f*** that, let's go'.
"After that Ferguson gave him two weeks off because he says he needed to recover from that because we were waiting for him because in that team we didn't care, we were ready to kill him.
"Because you know someone crying at Anfield... and even Ferguson, you remember when he said: 'I hope your legs are f*****g broken I really hope your legs are broken'.
"Ferguson always wanted to kill Nani when he was falling on the floor, saying you can't be a United player and doing that."
Ferdinand was quick to reiterate Evra's point. The former defender insisted that the United players were always told they were not allowed to show any weakness, especially at Anfield. There was a general consensus that it would give Liverpool further encouragement to perform against their bitter rivals.
He added: "We [United] all run over because it was such a bad tackle and everyone's pushing. Scholesy came and looked at Nani and saw him crying and said, 'nah', and walked off, just walked off. He said he can't defend that.
"What Pat is saying is you can't show any form of weakness at Anfield."
Nani, meanwhile, couldn't hide his emotions - or the physical pain for that matter. He was replaced by Javier Hernandez, who actually scored United's only goal in the game as they went on to lose 3-1. Kuyt completed his hat-trick for Liverpool in the 65th minute, just to rub salt into the wound.
The Portuguese attacker was understandably raging. Even 10 days after the incident, he was still fuming.
"The first time I looked at my leg, I was thinking, 'the season is finished for me now'," said Nani a week and a half after the incident, via The Guardian. "That's why I was crying. I felt the pain straight away. But I was in shock. I wanted to show the ref so I got to my feet. I knew I wasn't going to play anymore and, if I was not going to be able to play, he has to give the red card.
"But then he quickly gave the yellow card. How could he give the yellow card? He hadn't seen my leg. Then I showed him my leg and you could tell on his face [it should have been a red]."
While Nani did not get much sympathy from his teammates, his manager was quick to defend him - and condemn Carragher in the process.
"I don't know what Carragher was thinking but I do know what he did was not football," said Ferguson. "I don't want protection. I just want the referees to be fair. If it is a red card, they have to give it. If they give the card, the next time the player doesn't make the tackle."
Carragher did attempt to seek out Nani to apologise for the challenge, but the United man was simply not in the mood to accept his opponent's apology. To be fair, you can understand why.
"If you ask anyone in football, anyone who has suffered a tackle like that, they are not going to accept an apology, especially as it was the second year running he took me out," Nani said a few days after the tackle. "He came to apologise after the game but I was not happy. It is the second time he has injured me. He always tackles like that. Before, he put me out of the game for two months."
Somehow, despite blood gushing from his leg, Nani only missed one week before returning to action in the Champions League. It was initially feared that he had suffered a broken leg, but thankfully, that was not the case.
For Carragher, it was a while before he spoke publically about the incident with Nani, but writing in The Telegraph, he admitted to feeling 'terrible' in the aftermath of the challenge and claimed he was trying to channel his aggression, but 'panicked' in the moment.
"My thought process was skewed and I got it badly wrong, mistiming my tackle in a way that looked awful. I felt terrible when I watched it back", he wrote. "I could not sleep that night, my mind preoccupied with the horrendous tackle and the public response to it.
"It appalled me to think my reputation might be sullied by one incident after the hundreds of robust but fair tackles in my career. I was relieved Nani was not seriously hurt, because I have never met a player who wants the thought of damaging a fellow professional’s career on their conscience."
Despite suffering a nasty injury at the hands of Carragher, Nani still went on to enjoy a productive season that campaign. The Portuguese ace, like many people, expected himself to be nominated for the PFA Player of the Year award. Having registered 10 goals and 20 assists, he certainly had an argument.
Nevertheless, Nani, after an extremely impressive season, was awarded for his outstanding showings by being included in the PFA Premier League Team of the Year for the first time. Months later, the attacker was shortlisted for the prestigious Ballon d'Or award in 2011.
The accolade would ultimately be won by Lionel Messi, who scooped the award ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo. While Nani wasn't expected to be crowned the winner, his inclusion on the shortlist showed how much he had progressed - even after coming close to not playing again for a significant period of time.
While it is impossible to do anything about it now, both Nani and Carragher would probably change the events of March 2011 if they could. The latter would, more than likely, not make the challenge in the first place, while the Portuguese forward might opt to tweak how he reacted to the tackle, regardless of how brutal it was.
If nothing else, Nani would probably want to make sure Scholes wasn't about in the aftermath, or Evra for that matter.
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