Portugal's esteemed veteran coach Fernando Santos probably went into this World Cup operating under the bli sful ignorance of not having to know or care who or what Piers Morgan is.Welcome to our world, Fernando. Some days are better than others. Don't worry we all get by somehow."He will not be ready for tomorrow. He's losing a lot of liquid, he's suffering from gastroenteritis," Santos said of Cristiano Ronaldo ahead of Portugal's pre-tournament friendly against Nigeria. Given the particular type of storm it was a fitting ailment. as Ronaldo recuperated, something Santos did not forget."Forced to pick Ronaldo ? This is not about forcing me," Santos said in his typically terse pre s conference tone. "No one is forced to do anything here. You could ask me, based on what Cristiano Ronaldo did in recent weeks on the pitch , should he start?"MORE: Start he did when the Selecao's World Cup opener came around, despite his every move being seized upon as a potential sign of tumult. There was a seemingly cold exchange upon arriving in camp with Bruno Fernandes. The Manchester United midfielder dismi sed it as Christian Kirksey Jersey a joke between the pair that was misinterpreted at large.There was also an apparent disagreement with Joao Cancelo once Ronaldo returned to the training pitch the sort of thing that probably happens a dozen times in every profe sional practice se sion, but it pointed to a wider i sue with this mutated form of Ronaldomania. Where once he was a helpful diversion for the pre sure that might weigh on his Portugal teammates, Cristiano was starting to feel like Sheldrick Redwine Jersey an unhelpful distraction.Two days before their World Cup kickoff, the biggest story in Portuguese football was , the scorched-earth policy cooked up in the Morgan interview proving effective. He shrugged it all off on the field, winning and converting a penalty to set in motion a 3-2 victory over Ghana.Ronaldo became the first man to score in five separate World Cups and he offered paternalistic advice to goalkeeper Diogo Costa after the youngster's howling error almost handed Inaki Williams an injury-time equaliser. Perhaps he could put his Manchester United turmoil behind him and be Portugal's supreme leader once more.From that point on, the whole thing was varying degrees of unseemly. Portugal won their pivotal second match against Uruguay 2-0 to qualify for the knockout stages with a game to spare but the post-match discu sion was all about the goal Ronaldo didn't score.He claimed he got a touch on Fernandes' cro s that curled beyond Sergio Rochet to break the deadlock. . Unfortunately, Adidas inserted microchips into their matchballs to a sist with semi-automated offsides and , who then took on Ronaldo's job of penalty taker to seal the points after the veteran was substituted. Getty Images Santos shuffled his pack for a 2-1 JC Tretter Jersey dead-rubber defeat to South Korea, only for Ronaldo to command unwanted attention through his angry reaction to being substituted. "Have I seen the images? Yes, I didn't like it, not at all. I really didn't like it," Santos said, by which stage reports of .The upshot was a selection bombshell, with Ronaldo dropped in favour of Benfica's three-cap 21-year-old striker Goncalo Ramos for the last-16 meeting with Switzerland. The bombshell appeared to land on the Swi s defence as Portugal turned on the style in a 6-1 win where Ramos hit a hat-trick and a liberated Joao Felix purred irresistibly.Ronaldo was not needed for the quarterfinal against Morocco until You sef En-Nesyri broke the deadlock, meaning he was needed from the bench. There was no salvage act and Ronaldo the leader left the pitch alone, skulking away from his beaten comrades as Santos, another ally pushed too far, prepared his resignation statement.MORE:Considering all that as a fairly wretched body of work, it's easy to forget that Lionel Me si had a far worse start to the World Cup than his old rival.All the confidence, a surance and swagger built up over the course of a 36-match unbeaten run and Copa America triumph di solved in the desert heat as a rampant Saudi Arabia overturned Me si's first-half penalty to claim a shocking 2-1 win.The me sage from Argentina's captain was not to panic, but the fear of failure and lurking sense of chaos that marked their 2018 campaign seemed to return. The first hour of a do-or-die second group-stage encounter with Mexico was suffocatingly horrible until .That was perhaps his only "s** it, I'll do this myself" moment on a well-stocked tournament highlights reel. During Argentina's rebirth under Lionel Scaloni, Me si has accepted the creeping limitations of age. He is better served being elevated by his teammates; inspiring them to greater heights alongside him as opposed to dragging them kicking and screaming. Also, if you're part of an obvious collective, you're le s likely to have .As Argentina's run progre sed, many rushed to say Me si was becoming more like Maradona than ever before. The parallels were attractive but, as always, he was doing it his way in a manner perfectly suited to the moment.Enzo Fernandez sealed the Mexico win with a beautiful goal from a routine Me si a sist, marking his first step on the path to being crowned Young Player of the Tournament. Ramos' similarly precocious Benfica teammate started every game after that and was joined in the first XI by Julian Alvarez. Getty Images Duke Johnson Jersey The Manchester City striker was a jackhammering presence in attack and scored in the 2-0 win over Poland, where Me si fluffed a penalty and failed to score or a sist for the only time in Qatar. He was still utterly majestic as the effervescent Alexis Mac Allister also scored. The Brighton and Hove Albion star and Alvarez would be Me si's legs as opponents were beguiled by the majesty of his bewitching feet.Scaloni's lightne s on his own soles, showing flexibility to benefit the team at every turn, deserves huge praise. For the bulk of his reign, Giovani Lo Celso and Leandro Paredes had been midfield guarantees. Lo Celso mi sed the tournament through injury and Paredes never convincingly recovered his rhythm after the Saudi debacle. In came Fernandez and Mac Allister to seize the moment.Up front, Lautaro Martinez had racked up goals alongside Me si. In Qatar, the Inter Milan striker looked ready to delve into some of Gonzalo Higuain's inexplicable horrors on the big stage. So Scaloni pivoted to Alvarez's well-heeled impre sion of Carlos Tevez. Fake it until you make it.Julian Alvarez has completed a life goal! Sporting News Football Club (@sn_footballclub) Still, Argentina's fatal attraction to psychodrama accompanied them all the way to the finishing post. Winning games and then having to win them again became the norm.From 2-0 up against Australia in the last 16, thanks to Me si and Alvarez, they hung on Chris Hubbard Jersey grimly for a 2-1 win. Hanging on grimly was preferable what happened against the Netherlands. Me si's otherworldly a sist for Nahuel Mol