Portugal beat Switzerland in one of the most dominating ways possible. They defeated fellow European giant 6-1. The win kept the Seleção das Quinas in the race to win the FIFA World Cup 2022 as they reached the top eight. Portugal will now face Morocco in the Quarterfinals.
Although Portugal won the match, there was something that made a lot of headlines, which was the missing of their key player, Cristiano Ronaldo. The former Manchester United player during the match against South Korea left the field after the second half which was a surprising decision made by the bossman, Fernando Santos. In the round of 16 matches against Switzerland, Ronaldo didn’t even start and a rather inexperienced Goncalo Ramos started ahead of him, which led to the rumor that there was bad blood between Ronaldo and Fernando.
Fernando patting Ronaldo after he sustituted him during the match against South Korea.However, Santos has cleared up all the loose talk regarding his “strained” relationship with Ronaldo. While talking about his relationship with the five times Ballon d’Or winner, he said,
“Cristiano and Ramos are different players. There is no problem with the captain of the national team.”
He further added,
“It was strategic. Players are different. I also started [Diogo] Dalot, Raphael [Guerreiro], however [Joao] Cancelo is a fabulous player. That’s what I thought for the game against Switzerland, in another game it might be different.”
GONÇALO RAMOS WITH THE FIRST HAT TRICK OF THE 2022 WORLD CUP 🎩 pic.twitter.com/CGWZ5KVwUT
— B/R Football (@brfootball) December 6, 2022
Surprisingly, Santos’ decision to start Benefica’s forward Goncalo paid off as he scored a hattrick to help his side win 6-1 against the Swiss. With his hat trick, he became the youngest player to score a hat trick in the World Cup finals.
