Ronaldo missed “eleven” in the “big” game for the first time since 2004

On Tuesday, Cristiano Ronaldo fell out of the “eleven” of the Portuguese football team in the round of 16 match of the 2022 World Cup with Switzerland, an unprecedented event in a game that has been “regarded” as a great competition since 2004.

As a child, at the age of 19, the then Manchester United player was called up to Portugal’s Euro 2004, about a year after his debut in the ‘AA’ selection, on 20 August 2003, and came on as a substitute.

In the Portuguese debut, on June 12, at Dragao, Cristiano Ronaldo came on and scored against Greece already in stoppage time, in a 2-1 loss, and in the second game, four days later, he again started on the bench. against Russia (2:0), coming out only in the 78th minute.

On June 20, in the decisive match of the group stage, he made his debut in the “eleven” against Spain (1: 0), and then in other tournaments, as well as in the championships of 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018. World Cups in both 2022 and 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020, the Europeans played in 2021 “eleven” never let down in an important game.

The exception was the two games in the third round of the group stage, when Portugal had already qualified for the “eighth round”: in the 2006 World Cup against Mexico (2:1) there was only one yellow left before the “eighth round”. ‘ and was not even on the bench, and at Euro 2008 against hosts Switzerland (0-2) he was an unused substitute.

Interestingly, again against the Swiss, 14 years later, the name of Cristiano Ronaldo is not among the “eleven” of Portugal in a major competition: there were 31 games in a row.

This time around, Portuguese coach Fernando Santos sat down the 37-year-old left without a club after the termination of his contract with Manchester United, after what happened in the last game of the 2022 World Cup group stage against Korea. Republic of the South.

When the Portuguese coach gave the order to change the “captain” in the 65th minute, he challenged the decision, not being caught by Fernando Santos immediately, but later when Fernando Santos saw the images.

“I really didn’t like anything,” the Portuguese coach admitted at a press conference before the meeting, adding that the situation was resolved internally, but did not specify whether Ronaldo would be in the starting XI on Tuesday.

The mystery ended with the announcement of the teams for the game, where Cristiano Ronaldo appeared among the substitutes for the clash in Lusail, starting at 19:00 (in Lisbon), with Switzerland, for the 1/8 finals of the World Cup from 2022. .