revealed he confronted and asked him why he turned down the opportunity to take a crucial penalty against .
The superstar made his comeback on Saturday after missing the midweek defeat against Liverpool following the tragic death of his baby son.
Ronaldo helped haul his side back into a contest that looked as though it was rapidly slipping away from them when Bukayo Saka doubled Arsenal’s lead in the 32nd minute.
The 37-year-old, however, almost immediately halved the deficit, poaching the 100th goal of his Premier League career with a typically composed finish.
It looked inevitable that Ronaldo would draw his side level shortly before the hour mark when Nuno Tavares conceded a needless penalty for handball.
Ronaldo beat Aaron Ramsdale from 12 yards in the reverse fixture earlier in the season, but he opted to hand the responsibility to Bruno Fernandes instead.
The Portugal international employed his customary technique, but was left horrified when, having sent the Arsenal goalkeeper the wrong way, clipped the outside of the post.
‘I spoke with him after the game and asked him,’ Rangnick said of Ronaldo’s decision not to take the penalty. ‘He said he just didn’t feel he should take it and that’s why he said it would be better if Bruno took it.’
Despite another damaging defeat, Rangnick was heartened by a display that could have yielded so much more had it not been for some errant finishing and questionable officiating.
‘Today was better than Tuesday, an improved performance. We should have scored more goals than we did,’ he said. ‘We bounced back from a poor start and had numerous chances. He hit the crossbar and the post twice. We had enough chances to get a better result.
‘The one thing we didn’t do well was defending in and around our own box. This has been an issue all season. We should have defended better. The third goal was a clear offside and I do not understand why VAR did not intervene.
‘But in possession we created enough chances to get two or even three goals. They [the players] are very disappointed and frustrated. Had we converted the penalty it would have changed the whole game, but we didn’t.
‘We hit the post and had another VAR decision, we thought Cristiano’s goal was not offside. There were three unlucky VAR decision against us, there was also a handball decision inside the box.
‘But again we have to deal with it and cope with it. An improved performance but disappointing result We need to defend better. We have conceded an average of three goals in our last three games, we were far better a few weeks ago.’
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