Cristiano Ronaldo Inadvertently Elbows Dani Alves in the Head During El Clasico

There was a bit of controversy during the first half of Saturday's Clasico match between Real Madrid and Barcelona, as Los Blancos star forward Cristiano Ronaldo struck Barca defender Dani Alves in the head with his elbow.

The Brazilian moved to block Ronaldo's path to the ball, and while the latter didn't seem to be aiming for his head, he also clearly didn't hold back.

Per ESPN FC's Dermot Corrigan, Alves was booked for the incident:

Naturally, fans and pundits on both sides of the rivalry immediately weighed in on the matter. The guys at totalBarca were convinced it was a deliberate elbow that may have warranted a red card, while Madrid-based newspaper AS saw it differently:

"

Ronaldo donked Alves on the head as he ran into him, the Brazilian is unhappy about that. He's still booked for obstruction though.

— AS English (@English_AS) November 21, 2015"

For football journalist Graham Hunter, there was no question Ronaldo should have been sent off:

The elbow didn't look pretty, but Alves initiated the incident by committing a clear obstruction foul. The London Evening Standard's Joe Krishnan even called it retribution:

Ultimately, the official must have determined the contact was incidental, and without the benefit of instant replay, it would have been hard to see the incident from where he was standing.

Ronaldo and Alves were involved in a number of incidents during the first half, including penalty shouts when the latter had his arms around the Portuguese. That was hardly the only physical battle, however, as James Rodriguez was booked for a tackle on Neymar on the edge of the box; Jordi Alba and Gareth Bale also made their presence felt.