Portugal was shamefully defeated by Morocco. I had written it, I had also stressed it on game night after Portugal’s triumph against Switzerland, that it would have been better for Portugal to win 1-0 with Cristiano Ronaldo on the pitch than to score 6 goals without him.

This event has a historicity that every national coach is obliged to respect and follow. Fernando Santos didn’t do it and was penalized.

We are blessed by Fernando Santos

Fernando Santos is a remarkable coach who has benefitted our country. It was great and difficult to continue Rehagel’s work and now that the years have passed we can understand it more easily. Together with the survivors of the 2004 generation, he kept our dream open for another 4 years.

He led us to the 8th European Championship in 2012 and the 16th World Championship in 2014. From the moment he left, and with him Karagounis, and also Katsouranis, the dream was extinguished there. Our journey, which began in 2001 with the signing of Otto Rehagel to retain a large generation of footballers, ended in the summer of 2014 with the clumsy handling of EPO.

The bye was said before we returned from the Brazilian stadiums and our national team was punished with that decision. At Santos we have to remember two qualifiers in the final and two great marches. Santos took over his country’s national team and managed to win the European Championship in 2016. It is certain that his tenure in the history of Portuguese football will remain so successful, whatever happened in Qatar and the previous two failed attempts in the finals.

He had no right to replace Ronaldo

But the truth is that Fernando Santos drove people crazy in Qatar and bears a lot of responsibility for the elimination of his team. He replaced the greatest player in Portuguese football history at the last World Cup of his career and perhaps the best full-back on the planet in that era.

But back to Ronaldo, Ten Hague at United is a different story. We’re talking about clubs where the coaches are measured by results over time and it’s logical for his plan that Ronaldo at 37 is a problem, but the reality is different for national teams.

Footballers of Ronaldo’s caliber carry a legacy that makes their country proud. For better or worse, agree or not, Ronaldo isn’t just a good footballer for the Portuguese. He’s the one they believe gives them the right to claim that they’ve produced the best player of the last 20 years, even of all time. This footballer cannot be made a substitute by the coach of the Portuguese national team, he has no right.

Santos took him out on the cross

On the eve of the game against Morocco, he made the unlikely statement that he said so “It’s fashion to hit Ronaldo, leave him alone”. He explained that while he didn’t care about his protection, it was Fernando Santos who put him in the center and caused the whole storm of publications with his decision to move him from leader to deputy.

It all started the day before the Switzerland game when he commented on Ronaldo’s reaction to being substituted off against South Korea “I didn’t understand it during the game, but in the video I saw something that I didn’t like, I didn’t like it at all.”

The beginning of the end

The next day he was out and Portugal scored 6 goals against the virus-stricken Swiss, most of whom were playing with a fever. This result was the beginning of the end for Portugal.

In all these years, for his own presence, wherever the Portuguese national team went, in every city in the world, be it for training or for competitions, he had friends, fans who supported them for Cristiano Ronaldo. Recently, the vast majority of people around the world wanted to watch the final of the big game between Argentina and Portugal.

What they wanted to see was the fight between Messi and Ronaldo at the last World Cup of their career. These footballers write stories that transcend the teams they compete in, and their journey leaves a legacy their country has been proud of for years.

He was accused of wanting to do rehab with the regulars

The Argentines rightly still have Messi as their god, Ronaldo was brought on by Fernando Santos and from the moment a temporary triumph came without him on the pitch, the media made him a problem.

Suddenly, Ronaldo hit the headlines for daring to want to recover with the first team and refusing to train with the substitutes. Whether or not this particular incident happened, it’s a shame to sully a legend’s name with reports like this.

These days, Ronaldo was about to be managed by his manager, which couldn’t be allowed to happen. I really wonder how some people thought he made the right decision based on the result alone.

Imagine if he started with Morocco

We are talking about a national team, a tournament of certain games whose games will remain in history forever. Portugal should have played this tournament with Cristiano Ronaldo as the main player. No one could blame the manager when Portugal aren’t doing well because Ronaldo isn’t the same anymore, but he had no right to be eliminated without him on the pitch.

I didn’t wait for his expulsion to write about it, I mentioned it in my text after the game against Switzerland, emphasizing that difficulties are starting now. The conditions were created for anything Santos to do to be wrong. Imagine if he had started Ronaldo after the fictional six with the Swiss, which would have happened.

Those who believed Ronaldo’s absence from the XI transformed and shattered Switzerland would feel that the pressure he exerted to return shut them out. Ronaldo was lucky that Santos kept him out and the crowd watched Morocco beat Portugal for 51 minutes without him and Cancelo appearing on the pitch, asking Santos for their help in the final 40 minutes to turn the tide.

They quickly gave up on the mistake

Most after the triumph over Switzerland rushed to idolize Santos, which he did to win with substitute Ronaldo Cancelo. Of course, the Portuguese also have an inexhaustible player production, a huge number of footballers with an abysmal footballing talent and can successfully bridge any absence.

But it is important who you have to fight for the world championship title. Leave the myth, the legacy Cristiano carries and the historicity of his last participation. I wonder if it’s possible to idolize a manager who left out Cancelo, perhaps the best full-back in the world, who plays both sides equally and fairly because he got the result.

Is there a manager in the world who prefers Dalot at right-back and Guerreiro at left-back to Cancelo? And yet Santos preferred both. He chose to go into the fight to win the World Championship with Cancelo as his substitute and was even applauded for that decision simply because he won.

This victory, the flogging against the infected Swiss, was Portugal’s tournament downfall.