Portugal have been eliminated from the 2022 World Cup by Morocco, but coach Fernando Santos insists he has ‘no regrets’ at benching Rafael Leao and Cristiano Ronaldo.
The quarter-final was decided 1-0 by a towering Youssef En-Nesyri header just before half-time and another magnificent performance in midfield from Fiorentina’s Sofyan Amrabat.
Santos was criticised for waiting until the 51st minute to introduce Cristiano Ronaldo and the 69th minute before unleashing Milan winger Rafael Leao, but he stood by his decisions.
“I have no regrets about my decisions,” insisted the coach in a press conference.
Ronaldo was spotted leaving the field immediately after the final whistle in floods of tears, alone.
“Cristiano was sad, the team has always been very united. I don’t regret my decisions, I chose the team that was most balanced and we mostly controlled the game.”
I hope this dumb site gets shut down, cant post comments
Leao came on and was their best source of creativity, immediately started to torture their right side but his idiot teammates kept ignoring him when he was free on the wing. They had to give him the ball at every opportunity to run at exhausted Hakimi, not to mention the overlapping Cancelo was fresh off the bench, too.
Seriously, I can’t believe how stupid Santos and Portugal midfielders were. He still put one ball on the plate for Pepe and he missed the free header late on!
I don’t think Portugal did anything wrong. They played against 10 defenders. And a concentrated and disciplined 10 defenders. They were lucky Morocco don’t have a clinical finisher – otherwise they could have lost 2 or 3 nil.
France will definitely beat Morocco. I can’t imagine Morocco’s tactic of 10 behind the ball will work a third time. Unless they can get to penalties they will lose.