Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo was left on the bench by his national team manager Fernando Santos for their World Cup last-16 match against Switzerland. The Portugal coach had explained his displeasure at Ronaldo's actions in the final group stage match against South Korea and thus dropped him for their following game.
Ahead of the fixture, Santos gave his thoughts on what happened in the closing moments of Portugal's match with South Korea where Ronaldo was heavily involved. He said: “I’d heard him (Ronaldo) in discussion with Korea’s players. But I didn’t like the other images when I saw them. Not at all. I really didn’t like them. Now, everything has finished. That issue is finished. Full stop."
To the surprise of many, Santos made the huge call of dropping Ronaldo to the bench for the last-16 match against Switzerland with Benfica striker Goncalo Ramos, who was making his first international start, coming in for the former Man United star.
