EDUCATION CITY, Qatar — Cristiano Ronaldo was “insulted” by South Korea player Cho Gue-Sung as he left the pitch, according to Fernando Santos, as the Portugal coach sought to defend the striker’s frustrated reaction to being substituted.
Ronaldo appeared to have a verbal exchange with Cho as he walked towards the benches and then put his finger to his month.
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The 37-year-old looked unhappy at the decision to bring him off in the 65th minute but after the 2-1 defeat which sent South Korea into the last-16, Santos insisted it was his interaction with Cho that had made the former Manchester United forward “angry”.
“The player from Korea was insulting him telling him to go away, so that is the reason why he was angry, everyone saw that,” said Santos.
“I saw the interaction with the Korea player and I don’t have any doubts about it and if you see the images you see Pepe went towards the Korea player.
“He was not aggressive, he was only verbally aggressive, he was speaking in English to Cristiano, and Cristiano said ‘perhaps he had a bad day’.”
