Cristiano Ronaldo was surprisingly benched for Portugal’s showdown with Switzerland yesterday but Bruno Fernandes said that it won’t bother him.
Portugal ran riot against Switzerland, winning 6-1 and securing their place in the quarter finals. But all the talk before and after the match was about Ronaldo being left out of the starting 11.
The Portuguese captain had been replaced by Goncalo Ramos, who took the opportunity with both hands, netting himself a hat-trick. Ronaldo made an appearance late on but failed to get on the score sheet.
We saw how upset Ronaldo got when he was left out of the Manchester United team and many of us expect him to have the same reaction. But according to his teammate Fernandes, he is still happy for the team.
“Do you think anyone likes to be on the bench?” Fernandes said.
“I don’t think Cristiano would be happy. If the manager put me on the bench in the next game, I would be angry.
“We won the first two games with Cristiano in the first 11, and it could be that if Cristiano played, he could score three goals and no one would be speaking about Cristiano being on the bench. Cristiano is doing his job, he’s doing his part, he’s happy with the result because the goal for everyone is to go as far as possible.
“I don’t think people should be talking about Cristiano and why he’s not playing, because when Cristiano plays and the team wins, no one talks about that. When Cristiano plays and the team loses, everyone talks. [He is] the most famous player in the world. No one is more famous than Cristiano in sports, not in football, in sports.”
It is now expected that Ronaldo will be behind Ramos in the pecking order for the rest of the tournament, but it’s hard to see him not kicking up a fuss at some stage.
More must-reads: