Portugal boss sheds new light on the Cristiano Ronaldo bad guy narrative

There’s more than one given angle to any one given scene.

We've all heard the story by now. When Portugal took on Iceland, David beat drew with Goliath, Ronaldo said some things about Iceland that people didn't like and he became the villain of the game. A lot of people criticised Ronaldo for his claim that Iceland's overzealous celebrations after the game signified that they had a "small mentality", with the general feeling that Ronaldo came across as a sore loser drawer. However, Portugal boss Fernando Santos has supported Cristiano Ronaldo’s controversial reaction to following the match, claiming that the Icelanders engaged in some dirty tactics throughout the game, as the Guardian reports.

“When people talk about fair play sometimes it makes me want to laugh. When we talk about other people’s reaction in Portugal we say if you don’t feel, you are not really a good person. But after what the players and the manager said and what they did, they booed Ronaldo, they booed Pepe, the players on the bench kept heckling. “You should always have fair play and I have always played fair. Even in the post‑match press conference I made no comments about the statements and provocations. But I don’t think you should bring up fair play after other people have shown lack of fair play. In yellow cards we’ve been exemplary.”