Cristiano Ronaldo walked off as his teammates celebrated after the Portugal legend was benched. Photo / Twitter/AP
Cristiano Ronaldo walked off as his teammates celebrated after the Portugal legend was benched. Photo / Twitter/AP
Cristiano Ronaldo’s relationship with the Portugal team appears to be at breaking point after he was kept on the bench for 73 minutes against Switzerland.
The 37-year-old was axed from the starting team after taking a public swipe at coach Fernando Santos in their previous match.
He looked unhappy on the bench and he showed his feelings after the full-time whistle when he was seen exiting the stadium while his teammates celebrated with fans.
Portugal had four goals inside 55 minutes — with Ronaldo sitting on the bench.
Goncalo Ramos, the 21-year-old rising star, announced himself to the world with a thunderbolt strike in the 17th minute where he blasted a shot past the goalkeeper at the near post from an impossible wide angle.
Cristiano Ronaldo walked off as his teammates celebrated after the Portugal legend was benched. Photo / Twitter/AP
Ramos was the player promoted to start for the national team for the first time at Ronaldo’s expense.
Portugal coach Fernando Santos suddenly looked like a genius as his bold move to bench Ronaldo paid off instantly.
There was one stat that summed up Ronaldo’s embarrassment.
1 - Gonçalo Ramos scored more goals for Portugal in the World Cup knockout stages after 17 minutes (1) than Cristiano Ronaldo has in 514 minutes played in the competition's knockout rounds (0). Vindicated. pic.twitter.com/akYz7qNgvS
Former England goalkeeper Rob Green described Ramos’ first shot as an “absolute rocket” in commentary for the BBC.
It was 2-0 in the 33rd minute when veteran Pepe put away a powerful header from a corner.
The game was over when Ramos scored his second goal in the 51st minute.
Ramos completed his fairytale with a hat-trick in the 67th minute.
According to football statistics provider OptaJoe, Ramos is the first player to score a hat-trick when starting his first game at a World Cup since German legend Miroslav Klose in 2002.
It was complete carnage as Switzerland tried to chase the game and opened itself up in defence. Soon it was 4-0 when Raphael Guerreiro powered a strike past the keeper after getting in behind the defence.
Switzerland did score a goal off a corner in the 58th minute, but it was back out to 5-1 a few minutes later, with the game finishing at 6-1.
Ronaldo was substituted into the game in the 73rd minute.
He was denied a goal when he was caught offside late in the game.
