Somewhere, some mother today will have to bring her child to an A&E department of a hospital to get stitches in her son's face, result of a head butt

Not if the headbutter copies Zidane's headbutt-to-the-chest technique.

Crazy thing to do, but it did have a certain style. None of that limbs flailing rage of Rooney, or the embarrassing petulance of Beckham. Nor the flamboyance or Eric Cantona's sorties into the crowd to deal with a pest, for that matter. Precise, clinical, economical.

It appears the journalists voting for that Golden Ball award did so at half-time, before the red card incident. Just as well.