Cristiano Ronaldo will not be close to his teammates before the important qualifier with Armenia on Sunday. According to the media in Portugal, the superstar of world football has left the camp of the “sailors” and is already home, Gong.bg reported.
As is known, Ronaldo received his first red card with the national team in the surprising 0:2 loss to Ireland in Dublin a few days ago.
The match with Armenia tomorrow is extremely important for Portugal, whose team has not yet guaranteed participation in the 2026 World Cup. Roberto Martinez's team is the leader in the group with an asset of ten points, and in second position is the Hungarian team with two less.
Portugal striker Cristiano Ronaldo announced that next year's World Cup will be his last major tournament, but now he is likely to miss its start, writes BBC, reported BTA.
The red card he received automatically leads to a one-match suspension, which will remove the megastar from the lineup for the decisive qualifying match against Armenia on Sunday.
But Ronaldo's aggressive behavior in the situation for the red card, given for a kick without the ball can result in an additional one-match suspension, and these sanctions are only served in official matches.
If Portugal achieve a victory against Armenia and qualify directly, their next official match will be their first match in the group stage of the World Cup.