By: Felix Ikpotor
Coach of Portugal, Fernando Santos has defended the captain of his side Cristiano Ronaldo after he was criticised for accusing Iceland of having a “small mentality” in the aftermath of the 1-1 draw between the two sides according to goal.com..
Ronaldo reportedly accused Iceland of showing a “small mentality” on account of their tactics and celebrations at the final whistle after Birkir Bjarnason goal cancelled out Nani’s first-half opener in Saint-Etienne.
Iceland coach, Lagerback and his players also did not miss out on the opportunity for fun at the expense of the disgruntled Real Madrid superstar, with the coach saying: “I guess he’s just irritated because he didn’t win against Iceland, who are only 330,000 (people).”
However, Santos suggested the veteran former Sweden coach should get his own house in order when addressing the issue ahead of Portugal’s next Group F encounter with Austria on Saturday.
“When people talk about fair play sometimes it make me want to laugh because when we talk about other people and other people’s reactions… in Portugal we normally say if you don’t feel [emotions] you’re not really a good person,” he said, before accusing Iceland’s bench of heckling Ronaldo’s Madrid team-mate Pepe.
“After what the Iceland manager said and what their players did for 90 minutes… their fans booed Pepe and Ronaldo and their players on the bench kept heckling Pepe.
“We have our feelings and sometimes people will respond in a very emotional way.”
Santos professed his affinity for fair play – a possible deciding factor for UEFA if any of the third-place teams in contention for a spot in the last-16 are tied on points, goal difference and goals scored – but felt Ronaldo was fully entitled to respond as he did.
“You should always have fair play and I have always played fair, even in this pre-match press conference I made no comments about the statements and about the provocations [from Iceland],” he explained.
“But what I stressed here is I don’t think you should bring up fair play after other people have shown their lack of fair play.
“In terms of yellow cards we have been exemplary and we will carry on that way. Ronaldo is one of 23 players.”
