"Can't read his mind": Cristiano Ronaldo stews on Portugal's bench for 90 minutes in Norway - and then leaves people puzzled with his behaviour
Against Norway, Cristiano Ronaldo sits on the bench for the full 90 minutes. Afterwards, he refuses to go over to the fans.
While all of the Portuguese superstar's team-mates made their way over to the roughly 500 travelling fans after the 2-1 win on matchday two of the Nations League against Norway to thank them for their support, Ronaldo headed straight down the tunnel after the final whistle.
Before that, Ronaldo had spent the entire game on the bench. For the first time in more than 18 years, since the 2-0 defeat to Switzerland at Euro 2008, the 41-year-old did not play a single minute of a competitive match for Portugal.
After the game, national coach Jorge Jesus explained that he had planned to bring Ronaldo on, but the circumstances and the narrow scoreline ruled out introducing another striker.
"My plan was to use him in the second half, but the course of the game dictated otherwise. It made no sense to bring on a striker with his attributes," Jesus explained his thinking.
However, the Portugal coach could not understand the obvious frustration of his superstar. "Why didn't he thank the fans? You'll have to ask him that yourselves. I can't read his thoughts, but I will know when I speak to him."
Portugal benefit from a bad blunder by Norway's goalkeeper
In Oslo at the Ullevaal Stadion, Portugal went ahead on Sunday evening in the 17th minute through a long-range strike from Joao Felix.
Norway had pushed hard in the first half and created the better chances, but Erling Haaland reacted quickest shortly after the break. Portugal goalkeeper Diogo Costa could only push a free-kick from Martin Ödegaard straight out, and the Manchester City striker tucked away the rebound.
Portugal hit back quickly because Norway goalkeeper Örjan Nyland then made a bad blunder of his own. In the build-up, Nyland played the ball straight to Ramos, who beat the keeper in style with a lob from around 20 metres.
