Fernando Santos stumbles upon a winning formula by sensationally dropping Cristiano Ronaldo
Leaving the pitch after being substituted against South Korea, Ronaldo could be seen muttering to himself as he handed the armband over to the second captain, Pepe. Lip readers decoded the comment as “You’re in a f**king rush to kick me out, f**k you!”He later maintained that his comments were directed at South Korea’s Cho Gue-sung, who had apparently told him to hurry up and get off the pitch, but for some reason Santos seemed to think it was about him: “I didn’t like it.
As the teams stood for the anthems, the pitchside photographers crowded in front of the Portugal bench, pointing their cameras at Ronaldo. He sang along with the anthem, a paragon of dignity and patriotism. When his face appeared on the big screen the Lusail crowd cheered wildly. Switzerland goalkeeper Yann Sommer came into this game with the best save percentage of any goalkeeper in the tournament, stopping 90 per cent of shots on target. He had no chance with this. He stood by his post, frozen in disbelief, as the Portuguese players celebrated. Ronaldo watched impassively, as though it was his own team that had conceded the goal. It had taken Ramos just 17 minutes to score more World Cup knock-out goals than Ronaldo had managed in four previous tournaments.
In the second half, as Fernandes took a Portugal corner at one end, it became clear from the noise that the crowd was more interested in Ronaldo warming up at the other end. It took another Ramos goal to win back their attention, as he stabbed Diogo Dalot’s low cross through Sommer’s legs at the near post.
Switzerland scored a consolation goal three minutes later when Akanji knocked in a corner at the back post. As for the majority of the crowd, there was only one thing that could console them.
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