Portugal coach maintains style, shrugs off criticism and should stop CR7 again

In 2018, during the World Cup in Russia, Fernando Santos was asked how to deal with the pressure of being a coach.

Then 64, he said: “Pressure is for pots. I’m too old to worry about that.”

Four years more experienced, at 68, the coach of the Portuguese national team still shrugs off criticism and external charges.

Winner of Euro 2016 and Nations League 2018/19, he proved it once again at the World Cup in Qatar by barring Cristiano Ronaldo, the biggest star in the squad he has managed since 2014, and perhaps the main person responsible for the unprecedented achievements of the country.

He was forced to do this because of an attitude by the number 7 in the last group game, against South Korea, when the athlete threw a tantrum after being substituted before the middle of the second half.

Even with the episode, the coach’s decision was considered bold, mainly because the captain of the Lusitanian team is not the type that accepts the reserve condition well. He went into litigation with Manchester United before the Cup for precisely that reason. It could cause the same issue on selection.

Fernando Santos knew this and had a conversation with the athlete before making his new lineup public, betting on the young Gonçalo Ramos, 21, 16 years younger than the 37-year-old veteran.

“This conversation had to happen, it’s more than normal, but it’s true that I don’t do that with everyone. The captain, someone who is who he is, with the projection he has, for everything he has given to Portuguese football. He had to have this conversation with him,” he said.

The conversation took place on the day of the game against Switzerland, on Tuesday (6), shortly after lunchtime, in the coach’s office at the training center in Al Shahaniya, where the delegation is concentrated.

Cristiano Ronaldo was not satisfied, according to the coach. “We set out points of view. [o atacante] did not accept [ser suplente] in a simple way, but it was all peaceful.”

According to the Portuguese newspaper Record, the conversation would not have been so peaceful and the star would have threatened to leave the group. The coach, the Portuguese Federation and the athlete himself denied it.

“We have a very united group to be broken by external forces”, wrote the player on the networks.

But he did not hide his frustration, especially when he saw the Benfica player score 3 of the 6 goals in the victory over the Swiss, by 6-1, in the round of 16.

The new bet by the Portuguese should start again this Saturday (10), against Morocco, at 12:00 (Brasília time), for the quarterfinals, at the Al Thumama stadium.

Gonçalo Ramos was called up to defend the Portuguese national team in the World Cup without ever having played a match for the country’s main team.

In the first phase of the Cup, he accumulated just ten minutes on the field, entering the final part of the duels against Ghana and Uruguay. Against Korea, he didn’t even leave the bench.

Cristiano Ronaldo, in turn, had never been a substitute in a game in the five World Cups he played (2006, 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2022).

The number 7 in Qatar became the first player in history to score in five different editions of the tournament. He has eight goals in all, but has never scored in the knockout phase, while Gonçalo Ramos already has three goals.

Despite this, Fernando Santos avoided committing to keeping the young man in the team, barring Cristiano Ronaldo. He only said that he was going to study Morocco and assemble the lineup with names that represent “the best strategy for the game”.

Just as surprising as the decision to place the star in reserve would be to replace him in the team after Portugal had its best performance in the World Cup without needing him in the starting line-up.

At the moment, the tendency is for the coach to keep the formation that beat Switzerland. Mainly because of the difficulty he expects from Morocco, responsible for eliminating Spain in the round of 16, in the penalty shootout.

Moroccans became the fourth African nation to reach the quarter-finals of the World Cup, after Cameroon (1990), Senegal (2002) and Ghana (2010), and the first Arabic-speaking nation to reach that stage.

While Morocco intends to also become the first African country to reach the semifinals, Portugal is struggling to overcome the two best campaigns in the history of the tournament, third place in 1966 and fourth place in 2006, this is precisely the first with Cristiano Ronaldo in the team.