While You Were Asleep: Santos insists Ronaldo was dropped for tactical reason, Mbappe hails Hakimi, Jesus out for three months after knee surgery

Portugal coach Fernando Santos has insisted that his relationship with Cristiano Ronaldo is still intact after dropping the 37-year-old from the starting line-up against Switzerland in their round-of-16 clash.

“I have a very close relationship,” said Santos.

“I know him since he was 19 at Sporting and then he started to develop in the national squad when I arrived in 2014.

“Ronaldo and I never misinterpret the human and personal aspect with that of manager and player. I will always consider that he is a very important player to have in the team.”

Cristiano Ronaldo was a solitary figure as he walked off the field following a World Cup match in which he was not the center of attention.

He’d come off the bench in a 6-1 victory over Switzerland on Tuesday that moved Portugal into the quarterfinals. Ronaldo’s 21-year-old replacement scored a hat trick in the win — a performance sure to raise questions over Ronaldo’s future with his national team.

Mbappe hails Hakimi

Achraf Hakimi converted the decisive spot kick for Morocco with a little dink of a shot known as a “Panenka” in a penalty shootout win over Spain to make his team the first Arab country ever to reach the World Cup quarterfinals Tuesday.

Instead of using his full force to strike the ball, Hakimi instead waited for Spain goalkeeper Unai Simón to lunge to his right before lightly pushing the ball into the center of the goal.

Hakimi’s PSG team-mate Kylian Mbappe lauded Hakimi’s daredevilry and praised the right-back for his match-winning exploits.

Taking to Twitter the 23-year-old wrote: ‘ACHRAF HAKIMI’ alongside a penguin, crown and love heart with fingers emojis.

The significance of those emojis were relation to Hakimi celebrating his goal by dancing like a penguin, labelling him a king and the love heart celebration in relation to what he does when he scores.

Mbappe then tweeted again – sharing a picture of the pair alongside emojis to label him ‘Morocco’s King’.

Hakimi later quoted tweeted Mbappe writing ‘Dima maghib’ with a love heart and a handshake’.

Morocco will take on Portugal in the quarter-final, while France will lock horns against England.

Injury blow for Arsenal

Premier League table-topper Arsenal has suffered a massive injury blow with their start striker Gabriel Jesus is set to miss three months of action due to a knee injury, he sustaied at the FIFA World Cup, the club announced on Monday.

Jesus has been a major part of Arsenal’s early-season success, scoring five goals and providing five assists to help the team establish a five-point lead at the top of the Premier League before the break for the World Cup.

A three-month absence would keep the 25-year-old out of 11 league matches.

“Gabriel Jesus has successfully undergone surgery to his right knee after suffering an injury during the Brazil v Cameroon World Cup group stage match on Friday,” Arsenal said in a statement.

“Gabby will now begin his rehabilitation programme.

“Everyone at the club is supporting Gabby and will be working hard to get him back on the pitch as soon as possible.”

Brazil’s manager, Tite, reacted angrily on Sunday to reports that he knew there was a risk in fielding Jesus.

“I don’t like hearing lies, said with bad intent,” he said. “We never put a player at risk. The liars, the haters, can go and do something else and stop giving fake news.”