Cristiano Ronaldo: Portuguese newspaper gave damning verdict on Man Utd star

Cristiano Ronaldo came under heavy fire ahead of Portugal’s UEFA Nations League clash with Spain on Tuesday night.

On the back of a frustrating few weeks where Ronaldo‘s attempts to leave Manchester United were rebuffed and he found himself stapled to Erik ten Hag’s bench, the five-time Ballon d’Or winner has even been slammed in his own nation.

That’s because Ronaldo was heavily criticised in the Portuguese press on the back of the 4-0 win over the Czech Republic where he drew a blank and conceded a penalty.

According to The Sun, newspaper A Bola went as far as dedicating their entire back page to the mission of dropping the Selecao’s captain as they ran the headline: “Less Ronaldo, more Portugal.”

The report is said to have explained that despite Ronaldo’s mass of caps and goals for his country that he should be benched due to a lack of playing time for United across the 2022/23 season.

It was also suggested that Bruno Fernandes should step up into the leadership role during games and a poll ran by the publication showed that 57% of fans didn’t want Ronaldo to start against Spain.

So, that’s quite the set of volatile circumstances under which Ronaldo entered a crucial game against Portugal’s Iberian neighbours.

And the pressure was cranked up even higher when, despite the pleas for Ronaldo not to start the game, Fernando Santos backed his star man from the off at the Estádio Municipal de Braga.

However, despite such a show of faith presenting the perfect opportunity for Ronaldo to raise two fingers to the doubters, it certainly wasn’t a vintage performance from the Selecao skipper.

On a crushing night for the Portuguese that saw them miss out on a place in the Nations League finals, Ronaldo was left to watch on as