Gary Neville has suggested that former Manchester United striker Cristiano Ronaldo 'overachieved' at the World Cup in Qatar - but thinks his ex-teammate will feel differently.
Portugal exited the World Cup at the quarter-finals stage after suffering a surprise defeat to Morocco, with Ronaldo coming off the bench after being named among the substitutes for the crunch match. The 37-year-old started all three group stage matches for Fernando Santos' side, but was dropped for the two knockout games.
His replacement, Goncalo Ramos, scored a hat-trick in the 6-1 victory over Switzerland in the Round of 16, but failed to find the back of the net in the defeat to the African side in the next round. Ronaldo came on for the final 39 minutes, but the veteran frontman was unable to influence the tie and left the field in tears following the full-time whistle.
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Ronaldo scored just once at the tournament in Qatar, and former United man Neville believes that the Portuguese star will feel he underachieved during the World Cup. However, the pundit thinks that the 37-year-old actually overachieved.
The former Reds defender also doubled down on his previous claims that now former Portugal boss Santos let Ronaldo down, arguing that he did not play to the player's strengths like Argentina have done with Messi.
"I think Cristiano Ronaldo will feel he has underachieved after the way Portugal went out. Argentina as a group have come around Messi and played to his strengths, I thought Fernando Santos and Portugal would have done the same with Ronaldo. It just feels like something happened in the tournament which led to those plans being changed," Neville wrote in his Sky Sports column.
"Once you leave Ronaldo out it becomes a global story. I felt sorry for Cristiano walking down the tunnel at the end in tears. That's never a good image because you know he knows he is never going to play in this tournament again.
"I wouldn't class it as an underachievement from Cristiano, it's an overachievement for him to be doing what he's doing at 37 years of age. It's just the way it ended with him being out of the team, and how disappointing and poor Portugal were as a group chasing the game against Morocco."
Ronaldo, who left United last month following his controversial interview with Piers Morgan, is unlikely to play at another World Cup. He has registered 118 goals and 43 assists in 196 appearances for Portugal and is the all-time leading international goalscorer.
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