In the end, Ronaldo went down on his knees, and not just figuratively. The five-time world footballer crouched angrily on the lawn, looked at the green of the Estádio da Luz in Lisbon and ran a hand through his hair.
A header by Alexandar Mitrovic from the 90th minute was tantamount to a 2-1 for Serbia and had turned all forecasts on their head: Serbia overtook Portugal in the table of Group A and qualified for the third time after 2010 and 2018 for a world championship. The planned fifth World Cup participation in Ronaldo’s career is now in serious danger, and the Portuguese have to go into the playoffs as runners-up in the group. “Vergonha mundial,” yelled the sports newspaper Récord on Monday: “world embarrassment”. Even O Jogo was full of bewilderment: “Total solar eclipse”. And that in the stadium of light.
In the Stadium of Light, Portugal is experiencing a drama against Serbia
It hadn’t helped the Portuguese that they had taken the lead “with the crowing” of the game, like Récord wrote. Former Bayern professional Renato Sanches, now active in France, scored from 14 meters and thus secured fantastic booking conditions for the ticket to Qatar. But with every minute that went on, the price became more expensive. “We stopped playing, that’s not excusable,” Bernardo Silva complained afterwards.
First Dusan Tadic (33.) met from 16 meters, and if the TV pictures hadn’t proven that the Ajax Amsterdam playmaker’s shot had been deflected slightly by Danilo, the criticism of Portugal’s goalkeeper Rui Patrício (AS Roma) would have been on Monday probably slipped into the personal. Rui Patrício didn’t need an alibi when Mitrovic hit from five meters away, the ball was untenable: Mitrovic was surprisingly free from a corner.
The goal could also be read as a punishment for the fact that the longer the game went on, the Portuguese let themselves be pushed deeper and deeper towards their own goal, even though their captain Ronaldo repeatedly gestured them to take a few steps forward do. But there were other gestures by Ronaldo that should give rise to discussion. Namely those who were seen when coach Fernando Santos approached Ronaldo after the final whistle to shake his hand.
Ronaldo looks massively angry
Ronaldo waved around so angry that questions about the relationship between the Manchester United striker and his national coach became imperative. It looked as if Ronaldo was reproaching his coach: Ronaldo raised his index finger, seemed to demand explanations, talked to Santos, spread his arms and let his hands fall back on his hips in frustration. Santos turned on his heel, leaving Ronaldo behind.
“He just told me that he scored a clean goal in Serbia and the referee didn’t acknowledge it. He opened his arms because he was disappointed,” said Santos when asked about the scene at the press conference. Which was either a protective claim – or it was real. In the duel in March, a shot on goal by Ronaldo in stoppage time against Serbia when the score was 2-2 was only cleared behind the goal line. But because there was no video referee or goal-line technology in the World Cup qualification, the goal was not recognized by the Dutch referee Makkelie.
Whether Ronaldo really wanted to work up the game from the spring again could not be verified on Monday night, the captain of the Portuguese left the stadium without a greeting. Fernando Santos, who had already felt the anger of the crowd when Bernardo Silva was substituted and had to endure a violent whistling concert after the final whistle when going into the dressing room, had to torment himself through a comparatively aggressive press conference.
It went so far that the question was negotiated how he, the EM coach of 2016, dealt with the fact that a large number of Portuguese wanted a change in the coaching post. “It’s normal to be opposed, but I’m here and I think I have the ability to bring us to the World Cup,” said 67-year-old Santos. Now he is waiting for the playoff draw, which will take place at the end of November.
Portugal will be seeded but possible opponents will definitely include teams as uncomfortable as Scotland, North Macedonia and Austria; Renato Sanches will be missing a yellow card. After all: The Portuguese have had good playoff experiences. They made it to the World Cup and European Championship tournaments in 2010, 2012 and 2014 via the play-offs. With Ronaldo, who actually wanted to say goodbye to the World Cup in Qatar and now has to worry.