{"id":255715,"date":"2022-12-08T18:48:40","date_gmt":"2022-12-08T19:48:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=255715"},"modified":"2022-12-09T05:00:02","modified_gmt":"2022-12-09T05:00:02","slug":"portugal-responds-to-ronaldo-walk-out-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=255715","title":{"rendered":"Portugal responds to Ronaldo walk-out claims"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) denied that star forward Cristiano Ronaldo<\/a> had threatened to leave the World Cup squad after being named as a substitute against Switzerland earlier this week.<\/p>\n

The 37-year-old striker was dropped from the starting lineup for Tuesday's last 16 clash <\/a>with his replacement, Benfica forward Gon\u00e7alo Ramos, stepping up to score a sublime hat-trick as Portugal thumped the Swiss 6-1.<\/p>\n

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The latest from Portuguese publication Record claims the striker had previously threatened to leave the squad following a conversation with manager Fernando Santos.<\/p>\n

"The FPF clarifies that at no time did the captain of the national team, Cristiano Ronaldo, threaten to leave the national team during the stay in Qatar," read the statement.<\/p>\n

\"Ronaldo<\/p>\n

"Every day, Cristiano Ronaldo is building up a unique track record of service to the national team and the country, which must be respected and which speaks to the unquestionable degree of commitment to the national team."<\/p>\n

Ronaldo also took to social media just hours after the FPF statement to reaffirm his commitment to the team, saying: "A group too united to be broken by external forces. A nation too brave to be afraid of any adversary. A team in the true sense of the word, who will fight for the dream to the end! Believe with us!"<\/p>\n

Portugal midfielder Ot\u00e1vio agreed with the football icon.<\/p>\n

\u201cCristiano is right,\u201d he told reporters on Thursday. \u201cThe group is united and the news from outside is not going to interfere,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re focused on playing for Portugal \u2014 and winning.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old Ot\u00e1vio said he had not witnessed any arguments in the team, but added that \u201cevery player is a bit bitter when he doesn\u2019t get to play and that\u2019s perfectly natural. It\u2019s not just Cristiano, it\u2019s every player.\u201d<\/p>\n

He noted that Ronaldo is always in the news.<\/p>\n

\"Ronaldo<\/p>\n

\u201cSo sometimes, the details of the images only show the negative and not the positive,\u201d he said. \u201dCristiano is an example for all, he\u2019s our captain, and even after he knew that he wouldn\u2019t play, he was one of the ones who supported the team the most. We\u2019re all with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Against Switzerland, Ramos \u2014 who came in for Ronaldo, to the shock of many, and scored a hat trick on his debut \u2014 stretched the opposition defense more than Ronaldo typically does. It gave Felix, playing just behind Ramos, more space to work in and he produced one of his best performances for Portugal.<\/p>\n

Santos went through the attributes of the three strikers in his squad \u2014 Ronaldo, Ramos and Andre Silva \u2014 and said that while Ronaldo is a player \u201cwho is more fixed and plays in a more determined area,\u201d Ramos is \u201cmore dynamic.\u201d<\/p>\n

So dropping Ronaldo requires a shift in game plan. It might have worked against Switzerland, but will it work against Morocco?<\/p>\n

Looking to become the first African team to reach the World Cup semifinals, Morocco is expected to defend deep against Portugal and play on the counterattack. Santos has to make the call whether this is more of a game for Ronaldo \u2014 one of soccer's greatest ever players \u2014 or to stick with the player who just had the game of his life.<\/p>\n

It's not a bad situation to be in, and leaves Portugal as a very dangerous proposition either way.<\/p>\n

with AP\ufeff<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) denied that star forward Cristiano Ronaldo had threatened to leave the World Cup squad after being named as a substitute […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255715"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=255715"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":255717,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255715\/revisions\/255717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=255715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=255715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=255715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}