Cristiano Ronaldo exited his final World Cup in tears as Portugal were eliminated 1-0 by Spain in the round of 16 in Arlington, Texas, on Monday.
Spain’s Mikel Merino scored the only goal of the game in the first minute of second-half stoppage time to send Spain to the quarterfinals at the expense of their Iberian Peninsula rivals.
Following the final whistle, a visibly emotional Ronaldo wiped tears from his eyes as he applauded the fans at AT&T Stadium. The 41-year-old’s World Cup career ends with 27 appearance — the second-most all time behind Lionel Messi (30) — but without the one major trophy missing from his collection.
“He’s been an exemplary captain,” Portugal coach Roberto Martínez said of Ronaldo following the game.
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“I arrived with Portugal at a time with a lot of confusion and doubts about Cristiano, and he’s been a role model, not just with goals and assists, what he does in the box, his commitment, how he experiences football. He’s an example, we have to celebrate him.
“We’re talking about an icon in football. There aren’t many Cristiano Ronaldos. We have to be thankful for what he did at this World Cup, he wanted to win it, as a player, a captain, on a human level, we’ll all take it with us forever. An example as the human being who is behind the sportsman.”
Ronaldo was trying to get Portugal to the quarterfinals in a second consecutive tournament for the first time. Instead, the career on soccer’s biggest stage is over for the all-time leader in international goals (146) and appearances (233).
The five-time Ballon d’Or winner scored three times in this tournament, but didn’t have many chances against Spain’s Unai Simón, who extended his World Cup record to 609 minutes without conceding a goal.
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However, Martínez defended the decision to leave Ronaldo on for the full 90 minutes.
“When you’re a team and you need a goal you can’t take Cristiano Ronaldo off,” he said. “He can play 90 minutes, no problem. He’s a presence, he opens space, a deadball situation, anything in the box, it would make no sense.
“In extra time it probably would have made sense to use Gonçalo Ramos. We had to keep the structure, it wasn’t the case to take your top scorer off in the 90 minutes.”
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Ronaldo confirmed ahead of the game that this would be his final World Cup. Along with Messi, he became the only man to appear at six World Cups during this tournament.
He also became the first player to score in six men’s World Cups when he netted against Uzbekistan in the group stage.
“It’s about enjoying it as much as possible,” Ronaldo said in his a pre-match news conference Sunday. “This will be my last World Cup, but let’s hope tomorrow isn’t my last game.”
The Al Nassr striker has yet to confirm whether this was his final game for Portugal.
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“The day will come [when I retire from international football],” he said Sunday. “But I’ll be honest. Whatever happens tomorrow, Cristiano will leave with a clear conscience, not 100%, but 1000%. Because I’ve given everything in football.
“I don’t need it, I have a good life, but it’s about passion. I play football because I love it … You have to enjoy every day. And I’ve scored three goals [at this World Cup], I’m not doing too badly, right?”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
