Home
Right ahead of the FIFA World Cup's quarterfinal slugfest against Morocco, the Portugal's coach Fernando Santos cleared air on Cristiano Ronaldo's availability for the all-important match on Saturday.
Ronaldo missed the playing XI in Portugal's 6-1 mauling of Switzerland in the Round of 16 tie after coach Santos benched to bench the star footballer. Ronaldo came off the bench in the 73rd minute, replacing Joao Felix.
In a press conference, when asked about whether Ronaldo will feature in the quarterfinal game against Morocco, Santos said,""That is still something that has to be defined. I have a very close relationship with him - I always have, I have known him since he was 19 years old."
"This relationship only develops, Ronaldo and I never interpret the human aspect of that of manager and player (in relation to) what we have to do during the match. I will always consider in my role that he is an important player to have in the team," the coach further added.
"Ronaldo will definitely (be involved), all the players on the bench can be used, if they are not in the starting line-up they can play later. It is important to look at the example of this player's history, he is one of the best players in the world at playing professionally, being captain - all we have to do is think about this team collectively," Santos further added.
Goncalo Ramos, who replaced Ronaldo in Portugal's, netted the first hat-trick of this year's FIFA World Cup in the match against Switzerland. Veteran defender Pepe, left-back Raphael Guerreiro and promising youngster Rafael Leao also got on the scoresheet for A Selecao. Manuel Akanji scored the Swiss side's only goal of the night.
So far Portugal and Morocco have clashed only twice with both the teams clinching one victory apiece. Both of their clashes have notably come at different editions of the FIFA World Cup. Their first meeting was in the group stages of the 1986 World Cup, which Morocco won 3-1. They went up against each other once again in the group stages of the 2018 edition. Cristiano Ronaldo scored the only goal of the game in the fourth minute to hand A Selecao a close victory.
