Jesus fires back over Ronaldo question

Portugal manager Jorge Jesus was involved in a tense exchange with reporters over his handling of Cristiano Ronaldo. Ronaldo left the Portugal squad after Jesus left him on the bench for a match against Croatia. Jesus was asked if he had apologized to Ronaldo, to which he responded firmly, "I don't apologise to anyone!"

Jesus took responsibility for his tactical decisions but refused to apologize, saying "Apologise for what? To whom? That is a lie." He emphasized that what mattered was Portugal winning against one of the best national teams in Europe. According to Jesus, the issue with Ronaldo was blown out of proportion due to the forward's status as a national icon.

Jesus pointed out that similar situations occur regularly without attracting attention, saying "How many players warmed up today and didn’t come on? How many? Is there going to be a problem with any of them? No." The Portuguese football federation has backed Ronaldo to continue with Portugal.

Brief written by urgent.news from BBC Sport, Gulf News, Daily Post Nigeria, Punch Nigeria, Punch — 5 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.