Cristiano Ronaldo threw a very public tantrum after Portugal missed a place at the World Cup, shouting at his manager and sulking on the pitch

• Cristiano Ronaldo looked close to tears after Portugal missed out on automatic World Cup qualification.
• He sat on the turf, threw down his captain's armband, and argued with manager Fernando Santos.

Cristiano Ronaldo threw a tantrum after Portugal missed out on automatic qualification for the 2022 World Cup on Sunday night, sitting on the pitch sulking before arguing with his manager, Fernando Santos.

Portugal was beaten 2-1 by Serbia at the Estadio da Luz in Lisbon courtesy of a last minute header from Aleksandar Mitrovic.

The Fulham striker's winning goal saw Serbia leapfrog Portugal to win qualifying group A, securing its spot in Qatar next year and condemning Portugal to having to reach the tournament through the playoffs.

After the final whistle, Ronaldo sat on the turf, threw his captain's armband on the floor, and appeared to hold back tears as the Serbia players celebrated wildly.

The Manchester United star eventually got up the shake the hands of his opponents and teammates, however when met by manager Santos, he did not hold back in making his feelings of frustration clear.

As Santos approached him, Ronaldo began shouting and gesticulating furiously towards him.

After a brief handshake, the Portugal boss quickly walked away.

"The truth is that we did not have a good performance overall," Santos told reporters after the match. "Therefore, we have to say sorry. The Portuguese people are obviously sad. Not more than us, but just like us.

"But my team will be at the Qatar World Cup. That is guaranteed. We just have to compete in the play-offs which is not common for us.

"Portugal never went through a play-off with me, but they played it on three occasions and qualified for the finals in all of them."

Ronaldo later said on Instagram: "Football has shown us time and time again that, at times, it is the most winding paths that lead to the most desired outcomes.

"Yesterday's result was tough, but not enough to get us down. The objective of being present at the 2022 World Cup is still very much alive and we know what we have to do to get there.

"No excuses. Portugal heading to Qatar."

It is unclear if Ronaldo's frustrations were solely to do with the result on the night. Earlier in the qualification campaign the striker had a goal unfairly disallowed in the reverse fixture against Serbia.

Had that goal been counted as it should have, Portugal would already have qualified for the World Cup in 2022.