Just days after losing his spot in the Portugal team, Cristiano Ronaldo's World Cup dream was shattered for good in Qatar.
The tail-end of Ronaldo's illustrious career has stuttered in recent months: his tumultuous second spell at Manchester United came to a sorry end a fortnight ago after failing to convince Erik ten Hag he was worthy of a starring role. The 37-year-old was then dropped by Fernando Santos for last week's Round of 16 match against Switzerland - and he was always likely to continue on the bench after his replacement, Goncalo Ramos, plundered a stunning hat-trick in a thumping 6-1 win.
Santos was quick to quash talk that Ronaldo had threatened to leave the tournament after discovering he had been dropped but did concede that the veteran questioned whether or not his boss really thought that leaving him out was a "good idea".
