As quoted by A Bola, speaking after Portugal’s 6-1 thrashing of Switzerland in the World Cup last 16, Portuguese coach Fernando Santos stated that, despite his benching for the game, Cristiano Ronaldo “remains a very important player for Portugal.”
Santos explained: “I have a very close relationship with him, I coached him at Sporting [Lisbon] when he was 19 and we always had a very strong relationship. This relationship does not change. Neither he nor I confused the human relationship with that of the coach and his player. From my perspective, Cristiano continues to be a very important player for the Portuguese team.”
“What we want is this team’s fluency. This game went very well, the team played very well, with movement, possession and confidence. They are very united and today everything worked well.”
Portugal will now play Morocco in the quarter-finals this weekend.
GWFN
