Cristiano Ronaldo upset because he was 'insulted' by South Korea player

However, Portugal coach Fernando Santos later insisted CR7 was reacting to something he heard from Cho as he walked toward the bench. Ronaldo ended the interaction by gesturing for Cho to be quiet. 

"The player from Korea was insulting him telling him to go away, so that is the reason why he was angry, everyone saw that," Santos told reporters after South Korea found a late winner to clinch a berth in the tournament's knockout stages, per Rob Dawson of ESPN. "I saw the interaction with the Korea player and I don't have any doubts about it and if you see the images you see (Portugal's) Pepe went towards the Korea player.

"He was not aggressive, he was only verbally aggressive, he was speaking in English to Cristiano, and Cristiano said, 'Perhaps he had a bad day.'"

Ryan Taylor of the Daily Express noted that Ronaldo appeared to tell Santos: "You're in such a hurry to take me off." The 37-year-old offered his side of the story following the defeat. 

"What happened was before my substitution, the South Korea player told me to get off quickly," Ronaldo explained, as shared by William Schomberg of Reuters. "I told him to shut up as he doesn't have that authority. There was no disagreement (with the coach)." 

Ronaldo has generated off-the-pitch headlines throughout the fall due to his much-publicized exit from Manchester United and the fact that he's been linked with a possible big-money move to Al-Nassr FC of Saudi Arabia.

Portugal entered the day already knowing they would finish atop Group H regardless of results. According to ESPN, Portugal will next face Switzerland on Tuesday, while South Korea will play against Brazil on Monday. 

"We are first in the group, but we wanted to win and have a better game to increase the morale of the players," Santos added during his comments. "But this result serves as a warning to our team."