Portugal’s obsession with Ronaldo cost them at Euro 2024
Portugal headed into Euro2024 with one of the most talented and deep squads in the competition. In every position, they seemed to have quality and backup for that quality.
Portugal exited Euro2024 with a damp squib
However, last Monday, for all their quality, the Selecao exited the competition at the quarter-final stage to France via a penalty shootout defeat.
Some will argue that Les Bleus are a quality team, and it’s no disgrace to lose to them. Despite making it to the semi-finals of Euro2024, France has underwhelmed in Germany, though, and it could be claimed that they are fortunate to be in the semi-finals.
The elephant in the room
Unfortunately for Portugal, there was a giant elephant in the room at Euro2024: the near-constant presence of ageing superstar Cristiano Ronaldo.
The Al Nassr star is undoubtedly one of the fittest 39-year-olds in the game or maybe even on the planet. However, watching him at the Euros was almost sad, as even one of the best players to ever grace a football pitch is only human.
Ronaldo was on the pitch, but he hamstrung the team rather than actually being the key player he has been over the last two decades.
23 – Cristiano Ronaldo failed to score with any of 23 shots at EURO 2024, the most attempts by a player without finding the net at a major tournament (World Cup or EURO) since the 2010 World Cup, when Lionel Messi had 29 shots without scoring for Argentina. Goats. pic.twitter.com/sZmlXaHqLU
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) July 6, 2024
You couldn’t fault his effort, but he failed to score in any of his five appearances at Euro2024 for the Selecao. It wasn’t for the want of trying, either, as he seemed to be on every free kick his team earned.
Considering his achievements in the beautiful game, Ronaldo has a right to have an ego. That ego wouldn’t allow him to give up or disappear, but unfortunately, against certain teams in the competition, he did just that disappear from the game completely. He wouldn’t relinquish control of the set pieces, much to the frustration of many onlookers.
At some stage in Portugal’s games, it felt like the player on the pitch was some sad tribute act to a once-great player.
Has he scored goals recently?
Watching Cristiano Ronaldo in both domestic action for Al Nassr and in the Euro 2024 qualifying, you wouldn’t say he struggled at all. It would have been difficult to claim that he didn’t deserve his place in the Portugal team.
In all competitions, he scored 50 goals in 51 appearances for his club team, Al Nassr, last season. Meanwhile, he netted ten goals in qualifying for Euro2024, with only Belgium’s Romelu Lukaku (14 goals) finding the net more than the forward.
However, those goals have to be taken in the context of the opponent’s level. For all the attempts at hyping up the Saudi Pro League, it is still some way behind most of the top leagues in the world.
Ronaldo’s incredible record of 130 goals in 211 international appearances was also a reason to give him one last dance on the big stage for his national team.
Then there are the Euro2024 qualifiers. As has been the case with the Selecao in most qualification campaigns recently, they steamrolled their opposition in qualifying.
Slovakia was the best quality the group could offer, with Iceland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, and Bosnia Herzegovina also cannon fodder for Ronaldo and co.
Although Slovakia made it to the quarter-finals of Euro2024, only to lose to a lacklustre England 2-1 in extra time, it would be hard to call them top-quality opposition.
Ronaldo has scored just one goal in his last eight games at major international tournaments, a penalty kick against Ghana at World Cup 2022. This illustrates that maybe he should have called time on his glorious career two tournaments ago.
He needed saving from himself
Cristiano Ronaldo is almost a cult (yes, cult) at this point. To many in his home nation and much further afield, the forward is more than a footballer. The forward’s influence goes way beyond the football pitch.
However, in the cold light of day, at Euro2024, he was clearly struggling to impact most of the Selecao’s games. He is just one player trying to help his team win the tournament. If one player is suffering, then the team suffers as well.
Ronaldo started every game for Portugal at the competition, being substituted just once against Georgia during the tournament when he had already picked up a yellow card.
Portugal head coach Roberto Martinez faced a major dilemma. He was always going to start Ronaldo every game. However, he could have limited his minutes.
However, it takes a brave man to limit Ronaldo’s minutes, just as former head coach Fernando Santos did at the World Cup, and Martinez does not appear to be a brave man.
The genuinely top managers make those decisions, though, and they are what determine whether a team wins a tournament.
Unfortunately, it seems that Martinez is not a top manager, well, not yet, anyway. He could have been clever and saved Ronaldo from himself, as he was highly unlikely to admit that he was not quite at it in Germany and volunteer not to play. I mean, which self-respecting player would at a major tournament?
A disappointing end to his international adventure for a great player
Even Cristiano Ronaldo’s harshest critics would have to concede that he has been a great player, who has enjoyed a fantastic career at club level.
Such is his drive and determination the forward may well look back at Euro2024 and wonder what could have been. Of course, he had one winner’s medal in the international game when his team became European champions in 2016.
However, even then, he was injured in the final against France. He spent most of that game acting as a second head coach on the sidelines, encouraging his teammates.
In truth, such was Portugal’s quality and expectation at Euro2024 that losing in a penalty shootout to a below-par France in the quarter-finals is a sad end to his journey in major tournaments—if, of course, it is the end.
It needs to end, otherwise, Cristiano Ronaldo would be in danger of ruining his football legacy by staying far too long in the national team. Some would say he is past that point, but it seems that even the player himself accepts that his days on the big international stage are now numbered.
Should Roberto Martinez have dropped Cristiano Ronaldo at Euro 2024?