England and Portugal met in a friendly Thursday as a warmup for Euro 2016. Expectations are high for both the Three Lions and for the Portuguese, and this was meant to be an important benchmark of where both squads are before June 10th's tournament kickoff.
Generally, in an international friendly, it takes a lot to earn a yellow card, and one pretty much has to attempt murder to get sent off without even a warning.
Don't call it a friendly! Bruno Alves shown a red card and sent off after this high boot to Harry Kane's head. https://t.co/OwXS6c8TSi
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) June 2, 2016
Bruno Alves' head-high challenge on Harry Kane might not fall under the category of "attempted murder" but it's just about as close as you'll get to it on the pitch. Not 40 minutes had gone by in the match before 34-year-old Alves channeled his inner Nigel de Jong to fly in on a 50-50 tackle with the England striker. It's unclear whether Alves saw a spider on Kane's head, or if he simply took offense to the presence of his face in the general vicinity of his boot, but the end result wasn't pretty.
Friendly match notwithstanding, Alves was, of course, sent off immediately, despite the protestations of his teammates. Unfortunately, friendly or no, it's frowned upon to cleat opponents across the ear. Sorry, Bruno.
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