Cristiano Ronaldo 's fellow Portugal international Jose Fonte has claimed the European side play "more as a team" without the veteran forward.
Ronaldo was dropped to the bench against Switzerland, with manager Fernando Santos unimpressed by the forward's attitude during Portugal's World Cup group stage defeat to South Korea. With the 37-year-old absent from the starting line-up, Santos' team romped to a 6-1 victory over Murat Yakin's men to set up a quarter-final clash with Morocco.
Fonte was part of the Portugal team which beat France to win Euro 2016, with Ronaldo limping off in the final. The former Southampton and West Ham man narrowly missed out on a spot on the plane for Qatar, having been on the bench for the play-off victory over North Macedonia, and he has had his say on his compatriot.
"Portugal have the quality to do this in every game, but we have to be honest - just his presence on the field makes the players of the national team unconsciously and automatically have to play for him and always give him the ball," Fonte said, according to A Bola (via The Mail ).
"For being who he is, for what he has done and what he is still capable of doing.
"When he is not there, Portugal plays more as a team and that was seen (against Switzerland). They played fluidly, without a single focal point, everyone contributed and it was beautiful to see."
Should Ronaldo stay on the bench against Morocco? Have your say in the comments section
With Ronaldo benched for the Switzerland game, Goncalo Ramos was given a chance to shine. The 21-year-old only made his senior international debut this year, but he scored a hat-trick against Switzerland with Pepe, Raphael Guerreiro and Rafael Leao also on target.
Ronaldo scored Portugal's first goal of the tournament, winning and converting a penalty in a group stage victory over Ghana. That remains his only goal in Qatar, though, and manager Santos spoke out about the veteran's attitude after the South Korea game.
The manager also dropped his star man to the bench after earlier hinting at such a move, and pundit Gary Neville accepted it was a gamble. "It could have gone badly wrong for him and before kick-off we predicted Switzerland would do well, but Portugal are purring now this tournament," the former Man Utd man told ITV.
"You think about how Brazil played last night, Portugal tonight, England, France, the teams have obviously played weaker opposition - their last chance to do so now, really. "He took a chance, Santos, not just leaving out Cristiano Ronaldo but [Ruben] Neves, [Joao] Cancelo, but Cristiano Ronaldo was the big one and it’s paid off for him in abundance because they’ve put in a brilliant team performance, they were outstanding, Portugal."
