Manchester United midfielder Bruno Fernandes has thanked Fernando Santos after the coach opted to stand down as Portugal manager following their World Cup exit. Portugal were knocked out of the tournament in Qatar at the quarter-finals stage by Morocco, with the African side securing a 1-0 victory over Santos’ side....CONTINUE READING THE FULL ARTICLE>>>
After eight years in charge and victory at Euro 2016, the 68-year-old has now left the job. He failed to repeat the success of his early tenure in Qatar and saw Portugal crash out to Morocco in the quarter-final after weeks of dealing with drama surrounding Cristiano Ronaldo.
However his final games were dominated by his decision to drop Cristiano Ronaldo for the knockout matches at Qatar 2022. Santos benched Ronaldo mid-way through the tournament but the switch did not spark attacking success against the Atlas Lions.
Santos chose to drop the 37-year-old before the last-16 meeting with Switzerland, following Ronaldo’s negative reaction to being substituted during the final group game against South Korea.
Portugal won the game against Switzerland 6-1 – Ronaldo’s replacement, Goncalo Ramos, scoring a hat-trick – but were stunned in the last eight as Morocco became the first African nation to reach the World Cup semi-finals.
“Many thanks to mister Fernando Santos,” Fernandes wrote on Instagram. “Thank you for the opportunity to represent our country and for the trust in us the past few years.
“As a Portuguese, thank you for putting Portugal at the top of Europe and returning confidence and belief to a “small” country that it was possible to be among the “big ones”. “Moments of glory and joy and others of sadness and frustration, but history was made and will forever be marked in the hearts of all Portuguese.”
