Desert Fest: With Ronaldo or without him?

Despite leading Portugal to the quarterfinals of the World Cup for the first time since 2006, Fernando Santos finds himself in a difficult situation with his team up against Morocco tomorrow. On paper, Portugal are probably slight favourites for this match, given their pedigree as former European champions and the strength in depth of the squad, showcased by the 6-1 thrashing of Switzerland in the Round of 16.

Morocco, meanwhile, have been quite impressive themselves, having conceded only a single goal so far and ending campaigns of pre-tournament favourites such as Belgium and Spain. They have, in their ranks, quality players like Hakim Ziyech and Achraf Hakimi and a reliable Yassine Bounou in goal. It is expected to be a tough battle for Santos' men, however, Morocco are not the only concern for the veteran coach.

Having benched his talismanic captain Cristiano Ronaldo for the game against the Swiss and seeing how it paid off, the veteran coach now has to decide between sticking with the same eleven and including Portugal's all-time leading scorer in the starting eleven.

Such decisions are often difficult for coaches to make and it becomes doubly difficult when the player in question can upset the team harmony. From what transpired in Manchester over the last few months and given the less-than-happy expressions, at times, Ronaldo wore on being benched could give a sense to an outsider that the Portuguese camp is in a bit of a mess despite the confidence-boosting win. However, any such turmoil inside the Portuguese camp was denied by Santos and his troops. 

Regardless, it is a situation any coach would like to avoid – coming to a press conference on the eve of a crucial knockout fixture and talking about what happened in recent past between him and his ace forward. But there was no hiding from those questions on Friday as the 68-year-old had to elaborate to the journalists as to what exactly was spoken between the two before the Switzerland match.

The Euro-winning coach made no hiding of the fact that Ronaldo wasn't happy with the decision to be benched.

"Cristiano, for obvious reasons, was not very happy about it," said Santos. "He's always been a starting player except for one or two games on the bench -- obviously he was not happy."

Often times in the past, when Ronaldo was more in control of his instincts on the pitch and off it, Santos had looked like an assured figure, almost resigned to the faith that the job of maintaining order will be taken care of by his protege. Ronaldo had even shadowed Santos at the dugout on one or two occasions, most notably in the final of Euro 2016. That is certainly not going to happen this time.

With reports in Portuguese media suggesting that Ronaldo wanted to leave the squad following the snub, both the player and the coach were quick to suppress it, giving enough clue that they have probably found a common ground, at least for the sake of the team.

One with more than three decades of experience and a rich trophy cabinet to show against it and the other with almost all the accolades in world football barring one, both Santos and Ronaldo are wise and experienced enough to bury any personal differences and leave aside any egos for the sake of the biggest reward of all.