Chaos gripped Funchal, capital of Portugal's Madeira archipelago, yesterday. Thousands of fans descended on the city believing they would witness the wedding of Cristiano Ronaldo and his fiancée Georgina Rodríguez, only to discover the reports about the date were wrong.
British newspaper "The Sun" had reported earlier in the week that Ronaldo and Georgina would marry on 8 August, with the ceremony set for Funchal Cathedral before moving to the "Savoy Palace", a five-star hotel housing four restaurants. Two of its floors, so the story went, had been reserved for the occasion.
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Fans took the bait. They flocked to the cathedral and the hotel for hours on end, buzzing with anticipation and hoping for a glimpse of the Portuguese legend and his bride.
Some in the crowd chanted "It's him! It's him!" whenever a classic car pulled up. Others were convinced that a group arriving at the hotel must be friends of Ronaldo, according to French network "RMC".
The catch? The couple who appeared outside the cathedral were not Ronaldo and Georgina at all. They were Fábio Santos Ramos and Fátima Nicole Cunha Teixeira, a pair from the region now living in France.
Once the ceremony ended, the cathedral's official Facebook account posted: "After much confusion in the street, with this large number of journalists and tourists, we finally managed to close the church and celebrate."
The bride and groom, for their part, seemed to relish the mix-up. One of the guests told the newspaper "Diário de Notícias da Madeira": "We feel like we're famous," before adding: "I find it astonishing that these people believed Ronaldo would get married today without security."