Inside the chaos surrounding Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal

Portugal drew 1-1 with DR Congo. It was a bad result. Ronaldo had 25 touches in 90 minutes. Nobody scored from open play. By all accounts, a forgettable evening in Houston.

What happened afterwards was considerably more entertaining.

It started with Joao Neves. The 21-year-old PSG midfielder, who had literally just scored Portugal's only goal of the tournament, was asked about Ronaldo in his post-match interview.

He said: "We know what Cristiano has done for us, for our national team, and for the world of football. But at this moment, he, and we know that he is no different. He is just another player here to help."

That was, quite plainly, a compliment. He was saying Ronaldo is humble, a team player, no ego in the dressing room. The internet heard "just another player" and lost its mind entirely.

Thousands of angry Ronaldo fans descended on Neves' Instagram.

His girlfriend, Portuguese actress Madalena, found her own comments flooded with people telling her to tell her boyfriend to show more respect, so much so that she had to disable her comments option. She had nothing to do with any of it. Ronaldo fans didn't care.

Then Katia Aveiro, Ronaldo’s older sister, entered the chat.

She liked an Instagram post claiming Bruno Fernandes "disappears in big matches and leaves the responsibility to others."

She then posted an Instagram story saying Portugal had "strangely forgotten how to recover the ball, win tackles, and launch counter-attacks" and concluded with "this World Cup is very strange. Very strange."

Nobody in Portugal asked for her tactical analysis. She provided it anyway.

Georgina Rodríguez, Ronaldo's partner, also chimed in. An account had spread a false rumour claiming Neves' girlfriend had publicly criticised Ronaldo.

Georgina left a comment on the post reading: "The new generation is making great strides." Pointed, sarcastic, and based on information that turned out to be completely fabricated. Outstanding behaviour.

Then Francisco Conceição gave a press conference. He said the team has "no obligation to pass to Ronaldo" and that decisions are made in thousandths of a second based on who's unmarked. He meant it as a defence of how football actually works.

Ronaldo fans read "no obligation to pass to Ronaldo" and the whole toxic cycle started again.

Ruben Dias, clearly exhausted, told reporters: "Honestly, I don't care at all. I don't think about it and nobody in the team cares."

Ronaldo himself posted a photo of the team training together with the caption: "Always standing together."

Portugal face Uzbekistan today, needing all three points. Colombia is already sitting on three points after beating Uzbekistan 3-1, which means Portugal can't afford another slip. The group is very much still alive but the margin for error is gone.

Whether all of this social media chaos affects the dressing room is something only the players know. Publicly, everyone is saying the right things. Privately, the group chat must be a nightmare right now.

If Portugal manage to fumble against Uzbekistan today, one can expect that chaos is only going to increase from here.