Normally there would not even have been a place on the reserve bench for Ronaldo, but it is and remains Ronaldo. yet I wonder what the ultimate reason was that he was not allowed to play at the final World Cup. Would it be his age or the lack of game rhythm? He personally ensured that Portugal became European champion in 2016, which would never have been possible without his presence. But, of course, the best is finished with Ronaldo. Maybe he will get a chance in the qualifiers. The coach probably thought it was too dangerous to let him play right at the World Cup. After all, he has also made very few playing minutes at United, and that is something you need as a player to be successful. He seems to want to continue, but a World Cup in 3.5 years may be too much of a good thing.
I couldn't find anything wrong with Ronaldo in his group stage matches. But for some unknown reason, the Portuguese coach (Fernando Santos) refused to include him in the starting XI for the PQF match against Switzerland. That match turned out well for Portugal, but the same tactic didn't worked well against Morocco in their quarter-final match. I still believe that Portugal could have won the match against Morocco and set up encounter with France in the semi-final. It was a big blunder from Santos to keep Ronaldo in bench.