We lose Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo from the World Cup on the same day

In the space of a week, both finalists from 2014 have seen their journeys four years end with defeat in the same stadium.

Jorge Sampaoli
“This is very painful, especially because the players have made a huge effort. It was a very difficult game but we have not achieved our goal here in Russia. I’m sad, I’m frustrated – I think that’s quite normal. For me, the fact of being here and being able to be where means I won’t decide my future today.”

“I think that we adapted to necessity, rather than having a clear idea. We had a clear need and we had to win, that was our main goal. That was maybe stronger than our football concept. We have the best player in the world and we had to try to create collective situations to really use that player who can have many brilliant moments.

“We tried many different tactics, surround him, create space for him, so we tried to use everything we had to allow him to do what he can do. Sometimes we managed it, sometimes we didn’t.

“fought until the end and they nearly equalised at the end and that’s what I really, really value. They worked very hard and I want to say thank you.”

Portugal are camped in the Uruguay half at the moment but they are still struggling for ideas to break down the South Americans’ well-drilled defence.

Uruguay are through and will face France in the quarter-finals.
Is that the final World Cup appearance of Cristiano Ronaldo’s career? He will be 37 by the time Qatar 2022 rolls around.

Fernando Santos, Portugal coach
“First of all, congratulations to Uruguay. It’s very sad for Portugal though. We know that the squares have been full back home and that the people there were really rooting for us. We could feel their presence with us and there’s a real sadness in the dressing room that we weren’t able to make it through for them. In football, there are no moral victories and I would have preferred to play worse and win the match. But I do feel that the second half was very good from us in terms of desire and our determination to score. We tried our best and we played a good game, I think. But you always want to win, and we lost, so well done to Uruguay for making it through.”

Santos on Ronaldo’s future with Portugal
Cristiano still has a lot to give to football and I hope he will stay to help the young players grow and develop. We have a team with many young players and of course we all want him there with us.”