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Cristiano Ronaldo Benched vs. Switzerland, Replacement Scores Hat Trick

The star striker wasn’t on the pitch to start his country’s round of 16 game Tuesday.

Zach Koons

Cristiano Ronaldo was left out of Portugal’s starting XI for Tuesday’s World Cup round-of-16 match against Switzerland on the heels of his actions while being subbed out during the team’s previous match. His replacement, 21-year-old Gonçalo Ramos, went onto score a hat trick in Portugal’s comfortable 6–1 victory over the Swiss side.

Ronaldo later came on as a substitute in the 73rd minute of the win, but failed to score his first goal in a World Cup knockout round match.

Just last week, Ronaldo was visibly frustrated as he walked off the field in the second half of Portugal’s final group play game against South Korea. Videos showed the 37-year-old striker having a brief verbal spat with a South Korean player and also showed him appearing to complain that manager Fernando Santos was “in a rush to sub me.”

Portugal was tied 1–1 at the time of the substitution in the 65th minute and had already clinched a spot in the knockout round. South Korea went onto win the match, 2–1.

On the eve of Portugal’s round-of-16 matchup with Switzerland, Santos was asked about the videos of Ronaldo that emerged and admitted that he was not pleased with the player’s actions.

“Have I seen the images? Yes, I didn’t like it, not at all. I didn’t like it. I really didn’t like it,” Santos explained, per The Guardian. “But from that moment onwards everything is finished regarding that issue. These matters are resolved behind closed doors. It’s resolved. Full stop on this matter and now everyone is focused on tomorrow’s match.”

The last time that Portugal started a major tournament knockout game without Ronaldo on the pitch was at the Euro 2000 semi-final. Tuesday marked just the fourth time that Ronaldo had come on as a substitute for Portugal since 2004, according to FBRef.com.

With the win over Switzerland, Portugal will advance to take on Morocco in the quarterfinals on Saturday.

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Zach Koons
ZACH KOONS

Zach Koons is a programming editor at Sports Illustrated who frequently writes about Formula One. He joined SI as a breaking/trending news writer in February 2022 before joining the programming team in 2023. Koons previously worked at The Spun and interned for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He currently hosts the "Bleav in Northwestern" podcast and received a bachelor's in journalism from Northwestern University.

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