Portugal coach Fernando Santos stuck his neck out by passing none other than Cristiano Ronaldo for the round of 16 of the World Cup against Switzerland. The decision turned out great.
Portugal outclassed Switzerland (6-1), reached the last eight in a world championship for the first time since the 2006 World Cup and Ronaldo’s replacement Goncalo Ramos signed for a hat-trick. That had not happened since 1990, when the Czech Tomas Skuhravy also performed in the knockout phase of a World Cup.
While his great rival Lionel Messi is still playing his part in Argentina this tournament, the two-year-older Ronaldo also seems to be entering the twilight of his career with the national team. After the 37-year-old man from Madeira had already ended up on the bench at Manchester United this season at the hands of Erik ten Hag, he has now also received that painful treatment at Portugal, where he always pulled the strings so firmly.
A dive into the statistics shows how exceptional Cristiano Ronaldo’s reserve role is. Under the reign of Santos, the star was a starting player and captain in 76 of the 79 matches he played. Ronaldo was only a substitute in two qualifying matches against football dwarf and earlier this year in the Nations League match against Spain.
Substitute Ramos makes a hat-trick
Ronaldo made a bad turn at Santos by making a noise after his substitution against South Korea and was certainly not on track in the group stage, although he did score a goal against Ghana from the penalty spot. Characteristic of the ego behavior of the Portuguese star was that he tried to steal another goal from Bruno Fernandes. And then there is the ongoing unrest around Ronaldo, first because of the Piers Morgan interviews, with which he forced a departure from Manchester United, and in recent days around the mega deal with the Saudi Al-Nassr.
Santos was confirmed in his right, as Ronaldo’s replacement Goncalo Ramos of Benfica played an excellent game and put the strong playing Portuguese ahead with a world goal in the 17th minute. The 39-year-old Pepe headed in the 2-0, becoming the oldest goalscorer ever in the knockout phase of a World Cup.
Substitute Ronaldo thinks he can score
The entire Portuguese bank rushed to the goalscorers with the first two goals and Ronaldo could not stay behind, although he was the last in line to join the group hug. The moment he warmed up after the break, it was greeted with cheers by the Lusail Stadium and moments later his name was longingly chanted by the audience, who wanted to see the star at work.
When Ronaldo entered the field to loud applause, it was already 5-1 and his competitor Ramos had added two more and left back Raphaël Guerreiro also hit the goal. In the twenty minutes he played, Ronaldo thought he could make it 6-1, but the flag went up for offside. Given the top form of his competitor must CR7 seriously take into account that he will also be assigned a reserve role in the quarterfinals against Morocco.
In stoppage time, substitute Rafael Leao curled the ball into the far top corner, to make the Swiss’ suffering even worse: 6-1.