“Cristiano Ronaldo was officially eliminated in Euro 2024 when France beat Portugal with 10 people”, Football365 (Portugal) newspaper headlined after Portugal’s loss to France in the penalty shootout in the fourth round. Euro 2024 will take place early in the morning of July 6 (Vietnam time).
The title of this newspaper implies that the Portuguese team has Ronaldo in the squad like a handicap against France, when statistics show that the 39-year-old striker only touched the ball 11 times in the first half and only 2 times in the second half. the opponent’s field, including once easily losing the ball to midfielder William Saliba in the penalty area.
“Rafael Leao had some breakthroughs on the left wing but Ronaldo was too slow to keep up with him. Rafael Leao couldn’t do anything when Portugal didn’t have players running behind him.
And when Ronaldo tried to get past France’s four-man defense, he was in an offside position and angry because he couldn’t control the ball,” Football365 commented.
This newspaper also said that Ronaldo left a big disappointment when he missed a penalty in the match against Slovenia in the 1/8 round, and continued to become “invisible” for 120 minutes against France. As a result, Portugal was eliminated after a penalty shootout despite Ronaldo succeeding in his shot.
“We believe that Portugal would have won this match if anyone else had played instead of Ronaldo. Coach Roberto Martinez made the mistake of using a football player so past his prime that the players His teammates played like he wasn’t even there.
Next time, for the sake of the remaining 10 players, we advise the Portuguese coach to make sure that Ronaldo is no longer in the squad”, Football365 frankly criticized.
Dailymail (UK) also had an article criticizing Ronaldo’s lackluster performance in the quarterfinals against France in particular and Euro 2024 in general. “It’s puzzling that Ronaldo shows no signs of leaving the field, even though this player has been almost invisible on the field for a long time.
Ronaldo left Euro 2024 without scoring a single goal. In the last 9 matches at Euro and World Cup, Ronaldo was completely empty-handed”, commented Dailymail .
The Independent (UK) newspaper was equally harsh with an article titled: “Portugal has class, but is being dragged down by Ronaldo”.
In the content, the British newspaper emphasized: “Portugal paid the price for granting privileges to their legendary captain, after 364 minutes at Euro 2024 but could not find any goals.
Of course, the French team did not play any better, but letting the home team have to go to a penalty shootout despite having so many talented players in the midfield and strikers shows that Portugal is not really cohesive.
Speaking on the BBC , commentator Danny Murphy questioned Ronaldo’s role in the Portuguese team: “Sometimes it seems ridiculous that coach Roberto Martinez keeps Ronaldo around when he’s not creating any impact.” He must be thinking, what was Ronaldo brought here for?”.
After this defeat, Euro 2024 is considered the last Euro in Ronaldo’s international career. When asked if this was CR7’s last match for the national team, coach Roberto Martinez said: “Everything is too early to decide.
We are suffering defeat as a team and no individual is responsible alone,” the Spanish strategist added after the defeat.
