Conspiracies in football, and in general, are few and far between. I also believe that UEFA, when it comes to appointing referees, is probably one of the better organizations. Don't get me wrong, I fully expect UEFA to be full of thieves, but they have long realised that making their product more appealing earns them more money and I think they've fairly consistently tried to raise the bar for CL refs. Although it must be said Brych has really not been up to standards for a while now.
As for Ronaldo's red card... The linesman has to decide in a split second. The ball is elsewhere and Ronaldo only touches the guy for a few fractions of a second. Really hard to see. The images don't make it any more obvious. To me it looks like Ronaldo wants to pull the guy's hair, but reconsiders at the final second and only grazes his head. Doubt should be in favour of Ronaldo here, so I think he shouldn't be punished at all. I expect him to get a three game ban though, if the linesman still claims he could clearly see the hair being pulled.