An exasperated Portugal boss Fernando Santos dismissed any suggestions that he should somehow intervene in Cristiano Ronaldo's quest to be awarded his side's first goal against Uruguay.
Ronaldo claimed to have got a touch to a Bruno Fernandes cross nine minutes into the second half of the clash on Monday night, and ran away celebrating the goal with his arms aloft.
The strike was initially credited to him by many, only for the scoreboard at the Lusail Stadium to display that it was in fact Fernandes' goal.
The Manchester United man would go on to score Portugal's second from the penalty spot after his now ex-clubmate Ronaldo had been taken off, and after the match he admitted that he wasn't sure who had scored the opener.
"I celebrated [the goal] as if it had been Cristiano's goal. It seemed to me that he had touched the ball. My aim was to cross the ball for him," he said.
"We are happy with the victory regardless of who scored. The most important thing is that we achieved our aim which is to be in the next round."
With Ronaldo seemingly adamant to claim the goal as his, both FIFA and adidas intervened to confirm that in their view the goal was scored by Fernandes.
"In the match between Portugal and Uruguay, using the Connected Ball Technology housed in adidas's Al Rihla Official Match Ball, we are able to definitively show no contact on the ball from Cristiano Ronaldo for the opening goal in the game," a FIFA statement read.
"No external force on the ball could be measured as shown by the lack of 'heartbeat' in our measurements. The 500Hz IMU sensor inside the ball allows us to be highly accurate in our analysis."
Despite this, it was put to Santos at his press conference prior to facing South Korea that he should somehow intervene and ensure that the goal was awarded to Ronaldo, such is his captain's obsession with breaking goalscoring records.
A bemused Santos replied: "Me? I should ask for the goal to be allowed to Ronaldo? Who am I going to ask?
"It was a goal for the team and that is all that is important."
Santos has rated Ronaldo as "50/50" for the meeting with South Korea, and could opt to rest the 37-year-old with Portugal having already qualified for the last-16.
When asked about his side's plan for life without Ronaldo, he said: "Well you can see the past two games he was substituted, so we have a plan of course."
On South Korea, who need a win to stand any chance of going through, he said: "Against Uruguay they had four or five good attempts, and unless we defend well we’ll be in a tough position because Korea are really strong."
