LUSAIL, Qatar (AP) — Cristiano Ronaldo he was dropped from the starting lineup for Portugal’s match against Switzerland on Tuesday in the World Cup round of 16.
The move came a day after his coach expressed frustration at Ronaldo’s attitude in the last match. Gonçalo Ramos, a 21-year-old forward who made his international debut three weeks ago, made his first start for his national team as a replacement for Ronaldo and scored a hat trick to lead Portugal to the quarterfinals with a 6-1 win. 1..
Ramos scored his first World Cup goal on his fourth touch of the game in the 17th minute to give Portugal a 1-0 lead. Ramos scored again in the 51st minute to give Portugal a 3-0 lead – Ronaldo celebrated the goal while warming up on the wing with the rest of the substitutes – and added his third goal in the 67th minute to lead Portugal .
The match marked the first time Ronaldo had not led his teammates onto the pitch as captain in Qatar, with Pepe taking the armband. The 39-year-old defender then scored Portugal’s second goal, with Ronaldo running from the bench to hug the veteran near one of the corners.
By the time Portugal had taken a 4-1 lead, the crowd at Lusail Stadium was chanting loudly “Ronaldo! Ronaldo! for the star to enter the game. The cheers then turned to boos directed at Portugal coach Fernando Santos for ignoring the pleas.
Ronaldo, wearing a yellow substitute bib on the bench, was expressionless as the crowd called out to him.
The crowd went wild when he finally got to his feet to enter the game on 72 minutes, with Pepe wrapping the captain’s armband around Ronaldo’s biceps before Ronaldo trotted onto the pitch. Ronaldo had a chance to score in the 75th minute, but his free kick hit the defensive wall.
He found the back of the net in the 83rd minute, but was flagged for offside.
This is expected to be Ronaldo’s last World Cup.
Ramos, who plays for Portuguese club Benfica, made his Portugal debut last month in a warm-up match against Nigeria and scored his first international goal. He replaced Ronaldo at the end of the World Cup opening match against Ghana and again against Uruguay.
Ramos has scored 21 goals this year with Benfica.
João Cancelo, a full-back who started all three group stage matches, was also dropped from the starting eleven.
Ronald’s benching came after he showed obvious disgust at being knocked out of the game against South Korea on Friday.
The 37-year-old striker opened the tournament with a goal against Ghana to become the first player to score in five different World Cups. But he was ineffective in Portugal’s last two group games and was taken midway through the second half of a 2-1 loss to South Korea.
Ronaldo’s body language indicated that the superstar was upset at being taken out of the game, something the Portugal coach remained silent on for nearly three days.
Finally, in his press conference on Monday, Santos acknowledged that Ronaldo’s attitude in the match against South Korea was the one distraction, among many, that had taken him too far.
Before Portugal’s first game in the World Cup, Ronaldo cut ties with Manchester United and was reportedly courted by a Saudi Arabian team with the promise of an exorbitant paycheck, and a survey in Portugal showed that fans in his home country wanted the superstar eliminated. the alignment.
“I dindt like it at all. I really didn’t like it,” Santos said Monday about Ronaldo’s bad attitude when he was knocked out of the game against South Korea. “We fixed it internally and that’s it.”
Meanwhile, Portuguese defender Rúben Dias pleaded with the Portuguese media to help “create unity” in the camp instead of division. It was the survey by the Portuguese newspaper O Bola that showed that the fans at home had grown tired of Ronaldo and preferred him not to play against Switzerland.
It’s unprecedented for Ronaldo to get less playing time because the aging superstar has faded of late. He barely played in the Premier League for United for the first half of the season, and Santos left him out of Portugal’s line-up for a Nations League game against Spain in March.
Under Ronaldo, Portugal advanced to the World Cup round of 16 in four of their five tournaments, but never played in a World Cup final. Portugal in 2006 lost to France in the semi-finals, the deepest Ronaldo has ever reached in the World Cup.
Although he has scored in five tournaments, he has only eight total goals in 20 World Cup games. His 118 goals in international matches is a world record for men, but Ronaldo has never scored in the World Cup round of 16.
Lionel Messi, Ronaldo’s biggest rival over the years, has scored three goals so far this World Cup and helped Argentina reach the quarterfinals. Messi has nine World Cup goals in his career and, like Ronaldo, has never won the tournament.
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