The End Of The Line For Cristiano Ronaldo
Good morning everyone, welcome to my blog. It has been an eventful weekend in the Euros 2024, and in my post yesterday, I gave a review about the Spain vs. Germany match. It was an incredible game with both teams going at each other blow for blow, but in the end, only Spain gave the knockout punch to stand tall in the competition. Another match that also took place that same day was Portugal vs. France, and I remembered in my preview post, I stated that France was the favourite going into the semifinals of the competition.
The match was intense, and both teams gave their all in the 90 minutes plus 30 minutes extra time and in the penalty shootout. Portugal's loss should not be blamed on Joao Felix but two people, and they are Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal head coach Roberto Martinez. Ronaldo had zero impact on the game against France, and even when he had a chance to score, he fumbled it, but the attention was on Joao Felix for missing his penalty.
Ronaldo has made this Euros about him as he us desperately trying to prove a point which I still don't get because I think with a player that has achieved so many things in his football career he should know that his abilities are already declining and his make focus should be helping the team instead of trying to take the spotlights every single chance he gets which is ridiculous from a player that is one of the greatest of all time in football history.
Let's take the Portugal match against Slovenia for an example. Portugal was desperately looking for a goal to make it to the next round of the Euros. Portugal got I think three to four free kicks and Ronaldo decided he will take then all and even one for a difficult position, this brother still wanted take the freekick when the logic thing would have been for Bruno Fernades who is good in delivering crosses into the box to take it in hopes of it reaching a teammates head that will redirect the ball into the goalpost but Ronaldo decided it was his moment to prove something to the world.
The Ronaldo fanbase have said many times that Ronaldo's mentality on the field is unmatched but it was a different story against Slovenia when he missed a penalty kick in extra time and began to shed tears when the game had not even ended yet because there was still more time plus a potential penalty shootout. The truth is Ronaldo has made a complete joke about himself in this Euros which is his last as he said in an interview some time ago and the way he went out of his last Euros participation is just horrible.
Roberto Martinez also equally deserves to be blamed for Portugal exit out ot the Euros because I don't expect a coach who has experienced did not notice that Ronaldo is not impacting the front line and still choose to let him play for the full 90 minutes, what happened to Gonçalo Ramos who is a promissory young talent and has showed the quality he possess in the biggest tournament in the world which was the World Cup.
It still pains me that the coach had a player like Gonçalo Ramos on his sleeve and didn't utilize the youngster when it was necessary for Portugal. It just seemed that Ronaldo had the coach by the neck because the only coach that had the balls to bench Ronaldo when he saw the Portuguese was not given any impact in the match was Fernando Santos and Ten Hag, but unfortunately Santos was sacked by the Portugal FA for the team's poor performance in the World Cup.
Gonçalon Ramos would have impacted the front line if he was deployed in the match against France, but I guess we might never know since it did not happen. It is the end of the line for Ronaldo and Portugal in the Euros. Hopefully, we will see new changes with Portugal before the World Cup in 2026. So, guys, that will be all for now. Thanks for stopping by and have a good day.
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