Our 3️⃣ points as Portugal demolish Switzerland without Ronaldo | OneFootball

Portugal really clicked into gear with a 6-1 demolition of sorry Switzerland in the final knockout game before the quarter-finals begin on Friday.

Here’s what we made of it.

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A decision vindicated

If Portugal had lost tonight with Cristiano Ronaldo not in the starting lineup at a major tournament since 2008, there would be many calling for boss Fernando Santos’ head.

The coach had already paved the way for his decision when he revealed in his earlier press conference that he was unhappy with Ronaldo’s reaction when he was withdrawn from the action during the defeat to South Korea.

“Have I seen the images? Yes, I didn’t like it, not at all,” said Santos. “I really didn’t like it.”

Notwithstanding that his 21-year-old replacement Gonçalo Ramos banged in a hat-trick on his first international start but Portugal played better than they have done all tournament. Without their captain.

It was as though someone had suddenly unblocked the sink and caused all the water that had built up behind it to suddenly come flooding out, such was the chance in Portugal’s play.

They’d gone from stunted to free-flowing in once fell swoop and while it may be unfair to attribute all of that to Ronaldo’s removal, it certainly seemed to help.

The 6-1 scoreline was created without any impact from their veteran star, making it seem like Portugal may be entering into a new era without him.

Switzerland have no plan B

Switzerland had made it through to the knockout stages with a masterclass in keeping it tight.

A 1-0 win over Cameroon, keeping Brazil to only a 1-0 win over them and shutting up shop after going 3-2 up against Serbia in the 48th minute had served them well.

But when Portugal had netted twice in 33 minutes, it seemed like they had already blown Switzerland’s gameplan out of the water and with their defence already breached, it was hard to see a way back for them even at that early stage.

A damning stat from Switzerland’s toothless display is that they made just three tackles as opposed to 16 from the vastly more dynamic Portugal, a display that will have been truly disappointing to their supporters.

While the pragmatic approach has a lot of merit in certain games, the Swiss need to find a different way of playing once they are behind if they are to make any progress on the international stage.

Will Ronaldo return to the lineup?

Cometh the hour, cometh the man.

Ramos had gigantic shoes to fill when he replaced Ronaldo in the lineup and he stepped up in a way that even the most die hard of Portugal supporters couldn’t have dreamed of.

Now, Portugal face a quarter-final clash with Morocco and Santos has another dilemma to deal with.

After that kind of performance, surely he can’t afford to drop Ramos back to the bench and there’s also the fact that Portugal played so much better without Ronaldo.

Any drop off in form from the captain is hard to get used to, seeing as he has been Portugal’s star man for such a long time, but it could be time to make a fresh start without him.

Ronaldo is making a very public display of struggling to deal with his advancing years, but Portugal’s fans will find the separation process much easier to deal with if they have a ready-made replacement who can help them to progress in this tournament.