37-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo has already played in what could be potentially his last FIFA World Cup. Portugal and Ronaldo were ousted by Morocco in the quarter-final of the tournament being held in Qatar. A towering header by Youssef En-Nessyri was enough to seal the win for the African side. It left the Portuguese side shattered.
A young and strong Portugal team looked set to have a longer run at the World Cup but it was not meant to be. Ronaldo, on the other hand, saw his club’s fate being repeated on the international stage as he was benched for the Round of 16 and quarter-final games. Goncalo Ramos replaced Ronaldo in the starting lineups for both games. Ramos was the hat-trick hero in Portugal’s win 6-1 against Switzerland in the RO16, however, he could not replicate his form against Morocco.
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Ronaldo was brought in the 51st minute of the quarter-final when Portugal was already a goal down. A video has gone viral on Instagram showing how hard Ronaldo tried. He put great effort into pressing the Moroccan defense but did not receive support from his teammates. Another instance was when he was open to receive the ball and score, however, he did not get the pass. The video shows Ronaldo’s frustration with the lack of service from his teammates.
Soccer world thinks Cristiano Ronaldo’s teammates were not supportive
Fans have expressed their anger and disappointment towards how the Portugal players did not give their best. Here are some of the comments made by fans on the viral video.
“Portugal will pay for it one day. They will never get Ronaldo back.”
“They cheated him out of a chance to win the WC, I thought I was the only one who saw that his team wasn’t playing (with) him.”
“It must feel horrible to be buried by your own team. If you are going to do that don’t ask him to play”
“The thing is no one passed it to Ronaldo, he literally was versing two teams on his own, and no one talked about that until now…”
Just look at messi in todays game and ronaldo in his game with morroco benched for half hour , no support from teammates messi is a good player but not better than the goat @Cristiano
— Adarsh (@_A_darsh_1) December 14, 2022
Some of the fans compared the situation with how Argentina is playing with Messi.
“If they worshipped him like Argentina worship Messi it would have been a different story altogether”
“Messi got the final because he have the support of all the teams, Ronaldo did not qualify for the final because he did not have support from the team and the Portuguese team is currently hungry to become a star like Ronaldo.”
Portuguese soccer fans have made their feelings shown loud and clear. They believe there will never be another Cristiano Ronaldo who will help take Portugal to the heights he took them. He deserved more support from his teammates at the World Cup in Qatar.
