Those who have followed the extreme career of Cristiano Ronaldo know that CR7 “hates” the bench as much as losing. We well remember how Ronaldo in his second round at Manchester United responded to coach Erik Ten Hag’s choice to replace him with going to the shower – before the game was over. At Ullevaal on Sunday, it was a calmer and 41-year-old version of Ronaldo who experienced something “historic”.
There was a lot of excitement in Oslo before the Portugal match. Cristiano Ronaldo was going to show off on a Norwegian turf for the first time. CR7 fans stood in line and waited to get a glimpse of the Portuguese football phenomenon. There were glimpses, but during the 90 minutes plus, there was no touch on the ball or goals for the 41-year-old. With 21 goals away from the 1000-goal milestone, Ronaldo is in the game to score. Not this time, no. He actually didn’t get the chance.
Of course, we would have liked to see the Norwegian players meet Ronaldo at Ullevaal, but for large parts of the match, Norway played with Portugal. It ended with a 1-2 victory for the Portuguese, but for Ronaldo this was a completely new experience – from the bench.
Ronaldo had not experienced an international match without playing time since 2008.
Coach Jorge Jesus explains after the game:
“He didn’t come on the pitch. I considered putting him in for maybe half an hour, but then the game developed in a way that required other things. I didn’t feel it was the right time to put him in. There are still two games left, but it wasn’t about sparing him physically, because he was fit enough to play as long as I wanted,” the Portuguese national team coach said according to A Bola.
In other words, a historic event the CR7 fans and superstar came to Ullevaal not to experience.
