Fernando Santos stated that "a conversation with Ronaldo happened, naturally" and that when the coach said that Cristiano was not going to be in the starting line-up, the captain "did not accept my points of view so calmly, which is normal", but "I never said he wanted to leave the national team, never".

He normalised the situation by stating that "it is normal for any player to be unhappy about not playing" and that "a player who is not unhappy about not playing for the national team has no place in the team".

He also appealed to all Portuguese people to "leave Ronaldo alone, he doesn't deserve it", recalling "for everything he's done for the national team, he doesn't deserve it".

The national team coach believes that Portugal will beat Morocco, but warned that "it won't be an easy game, Morocco has a lot of quality".


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