ITV pundit Gary Neville was heavily critical of Cristiano Ronaldo following Portugal’s 6-1 win over Switzerland in their World Cup last 16 clash and called out his childish behaviour.
The 37-year-old made headlines before the match as he started from the bench as his Portugal teammates produced a sensational performance to beat Switzerland and set up a quarter-final clash against Morocco.
Ronaldo’s misery was compounded further as his replacement Goncalo Ramos scored a stunning hat-trick and the performance from the 21-year-old cemented his place in the first 11 for the next round.
After the final whistle, the superstar was seen walking off the pitch as his teammates celebrated the victory with the fans and Gary Neville was highly critical of this type of behaviour from Ronaldo on tonight’s ITV broadcast, which has been a regular occurrence over the last few months.
? Cristiano Ronaldo walks 'straight off' pitch at full-time as Portugal players celebrate with fans pic.twitter.com/FxaRtrL8cL
— SPORTbible (@sportbible) December 6, 2022
Gary Neville heavily criticises Cristiano Ronaldo following Portugal’s 6-1 win
Speaking about Ronaldo after Portugal’s victory over Switzerland, Neville said via the Sunday World: “Well what happened at United, the suggestion was, it was because (Erik) Ten Hag was trying to make a move on him, he’s trying to establish his authority.
“This is a manager (Santos) who’s got an unbelievable relationship with Cristiano Ronaldo for eight years.
“And there are a lot of fans of Cristiano Ronaldo who aren’t willing to tell him the truth. I think he does need to listen to the truth, that it’s becoming a little bit of a scruffy end.
“The petulance, the stomping around, the sulking it’s got to stop because it doesn’t reflect well on him at all.
“His long-term legacy is set, he’s protected. He’s one of the great all-time players but in the short term, he’s got to do a lot better, because is the Juventus manager wrong?
“The Manchester United manager wrong? And now is the Portugal manager wrong? There’s three of them that now have done the same thing with him.”