#5 His rant against Iceland
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When Portugal were drawn in a group with minnows Iceland, Hungary and Austria at Euro 2016, it looked like easy pickings for Ronaldo and his boys, who had far more tournament experience and far more world-class players than any of their opponents.
Iceland, making their tournament debut, were supposed to be the whipping boys of the group. It all looked like it was going to plan early on when Nani scored for Portugal early on, but Iceland proved to be a tougher nut to crack than was expected, and when Birkir Bjarnason headed in an equaliser, Portugal and Ronaldo were unable to break them down.
The game finished 1-1, but unsurprisingly, Iceland’s players celebrated like they’d won, which didn’t sit right with an angry Ronaldo, who refused to shake hands with the Icelanders post-game and stormed off to the dressing room. In a post-match interview he criticised the Scandinavians for having a “small mentality”, claimed they didn’t try to win the game and that they would go on to no success in the tournament.
While he had a point about Iceland’s defensive gameplan, Ronaldo came across as bitter and petty with his rant, earning himself no new fans. It was hard to see one of the world’s best players behave so childishly, but then judging by his previous it should’ve been expected.
