Ronaldo ‘insulted’ by South Korea participant

AL RAYYAN, Qatar — Cristiano Ronaldo was “insulted” by South Korea participant Cho Gue-sung as he left the pitch, in response to Fernando Santos, because the Portugal coach sought to defend the striker’s annoyed response to being substituted.

Ronaldo appeared to have a verbal alternate with Cho as he walked in the direction of the benches after which put his finger to his mouth.

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The 37-year-old seemed sad on the choice to deliver him off within the sixty fifth minute however after the 2-1 defeat which despatched South Korea into the final 16, Santos insisted it was his interplay with Cho that had made the previous Manchester United ahead “offended”.

“The participant from Korea was insulting him telling him to go away, so that’s the reason why he was offended, everybody noticed that,” mentioned Santos.

“I noticed the interplay with the Korea participant and I haven’t got any doubts about it and when you see the photographs you see Pepe went in the direction of the Korea participant.

“He was not aggressive, he was solely verbally aggressive, he was talking in English to Cristiano, and Cristiano mentioned, ‘Maybe he had a nasty day.'”

Portugal nonetheless completed prime of Group H regardless of conceding a 91st-minute winner to Hwang Hee-chan which noticed South Korea edge out Uruguay for a spot within the knockout rounds.

Santos’ group are set to face the second-place group from Group H — in all probability Switzerland, Serbia or Cameroon — however he insisted defeat to South Korea ought to function a “warning” to his squad.

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“We’re considerably upset,” Santos added.

“We’re first within the group, however we needed to win and have a greater sport to extend the morale of the gamers. However this outcome serves as a warning to our group.”

In the meantime, South Korea are set to face Brazil after qualifying for the second spherical for the primary time since 2010.

They had been heading out till Hwang’s dramatic winner which noticed them qualify on targets scored forward of Uruguay, who exit the World Cup regardless of beating Ghana 2-0.

“Earlier than the match Son Heung-min instructed me I used to be going to create one thing as we speak,” mentioned Hwang.

“He mentioned, ‘We belief you.’ After I went on as an alternative lots of group mates additionally mentioned they trusted me. When Son acquired the ball I used to be satisfied he would cross to me and it was a wonderful cross. It made my job straightforward.

“It was tough ready for the opposite outcome however we proved we might make it to knockout part and we saved that belief. That is one thing we needed and we anticipated. I need to share these nice emotions with the Korean folks again residence.”