Anybody seeking answers to the thorny issue of Cristiano Ronaldo’s future at Real Madrid would have been disappointed here, and perhaps doubly so because the Portugal captain did not produce the kind of statement performance that is his speciality when the spotlight reaches maximum glare. There was enough evidence of his commitment to the task in hand, though, during a moderately entertaining draw in which his side traded goals with Mexico in the final four minutes and did not need to rely upon their star attraction for points of interest.

Ronaldo certainly did not provide any after the game when, having been voted the official man of the match, he failed to appear for the press conference that generally comes with such status. Fifa swiftly explained that he was receiving treatment; the magic sponge appeared to have done its job when, 10 minutes later, he hurried at a fair pelt through the mixed zone and left those present to ponder whether silence meant everything or nothing.

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The fairest interpretation is that Ronaldo and Portugal simply want to get on with their job. They should have seen the game out after Cédric Soares, with an angled shot that deflected in off Héctor Herrera, put them ahead for the second time but an added-time header from Héctor Moreno gave Mexico a draw they deserved on the balance of play.

Ronaldo was involved in the move that gave Soares his chance, slipping a pass through for Gelson Martins to centre, but his impact in the first half had been more noteworthy. Ronaldo’s first significant involvement, 20 minutes in, led to the first of two uses of the video assistant referee (VAR) system and on another day its mixed results might have been the biggest talking point.

After his 25-yard free-kick had struck the wall, Ronaldo gathered himself to take the loose ball and crack a shot against the crossbar. It fell on to the boot of João Moutinho, whose volley was diverted into an empty net by Pepe. The defender ran off in celebration only to be pulled back by the Argentinian match official, Néstor Pitana, for scrutiny by the VARs. The delay, reassuringly short at well under a minute, resulted in the goal being correctly disallowed for a number of offsides at an earlier stage in the buildup.

Pitana would later seek recourse to the technology again, necessitating a wait of greater length to confirm the legitimacy of Soares’s goal with both teams ready to restart. The cause was not obvious and the buzz – such as it was in a sub-capacity Kazan Arena – from the strike was dulled. It is a system that needs to be used judiciously and the sense is that we are not there yet.

“If it brings benefits to football then fantastic but we have to be careful,” said the Portugal coach, Fernando Santos. “It was a bit confusing, and for our second goal it was a bit strange; the video referee was only used in our goals.”

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There was no cause for such intervention when Portugal did score a goal that counted, Ronaldo seeing the explosiveness of old desert him during a burst down the inside-left but recovering superbly to set up Ricardo Quaresma, who committed the Mexico goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa before walking the ball into the net. A putative nine-figure fee might not buy a player in his physical pomp but the mind seems sharper than ever.

Mexico’s first equaliser came via an emphatic header from Javier Hernández, who missed two other good chances. They are easy on the eye but suspect defensively; Portugal, with Bernardo Silva among those left on the bench, still struggle for such fluidity and remain over-reliant on their No7 even on his less influential days.

The post-match silence from Ronaldo did not extend to Fifa’s in-house cameras, to which he offered a brief statement asserting that there are “no alarm bells ringing” as a result of Portugal’s late disappointment. The same can probably not be said of the Bernabéu after the last few days but this looks unlikely to be a story that resolves itself in Russia.