Portugal’s coach Roberto Martinez received criticism in the media for stubbornly intimidating Cristiano Ronaldo. The Portuguese players praised Pepe’s contribution at the age of 41.
14:40•Updated 14:45
European Football Championships on channels 14.6.–14.7. Go to the competition website from this link.
Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo A 20-year career on the EC greens ended on Friday with a penalty shootout loss to France. Ronaldo previously confirmed that the sixth EC tournament will certainly be the last for the 39-year-old Lusitanian, but the door to the World Cup tournament to be played in two years is not yet closed.
Portugal head coach Roberto Martinez didn’t start speculating on the national team continuation of Ronaldo, who played his eleventh tournament in total.
– It’s too early and raw right after the game to talk about it. No personal decisions have been made, Martinez stated at the press conference.
Martinez has received a lot of criticism around Europe for stubbornly intimidating Ronaldo, even though the legend has not been the same and Ronaldo was left completely scoreless in prestigious tournaments for the first time. Ronaldo, who spent 25 minutes on the field throughout the entire tournament, shot 23 times and created an expected 3.51 goals, but the ball only went into the net in penalty kick competitions.
Ronaldo has scored the previous match situation goal of 212 international matches and 130 international match goals in value competitions in the early group stage of the 2021 European Championship.
A former Scottish player analyzing the games on ESPN Craig Burley gave Martinez criticism after the France match.
– When Martinez was hired as Portugal coach (in January 2023), I said that either he seems capable of making tough decisions and lets Ronaldo go, or he supports him.
– Portugal clearly won the games in the qualifiers, but I said we’ll see when the value tournament comes. The manager could have brought Goncalo Ramos in, to put Rafael Leaon center or make any changes but he just didn’t take Ronaldo out. He hasn’t scored in a value race for ten hours, Burley said.
“It was a great honor to play next to Pepe”
After the France match, we saw a tender moment between the two champions, who also played their last EC match Pepe, 41, buried her head in tears on Ronaldo’s shoulder. Pepe, who played an excellent tournament, was full of sadness at the moment of defeat.
– I won’t say publicly what Cristiano said to me at that moment, but contrary to what many people think, this is emotional for us. We are disappointed because we were eliminated in such a big tournament. It hurts to lose like this and we deserved more, but this is football, Pepe said.
– Now is not the right time to talk about my future, but we have to get over this terrible pain and suffering. We had a chance to win the tournament, but we just have to keep our heads up again.
The Portuguese players praised Pepe’s contribution in the tournament.
– It was a great honor to play next to Pepe. We had better chances to score, but that’s life and today we did more things well than badly. We faced one of the strongest opponents, the topper Ruben Dias stated.
Midfielder Ruben Neves praised the team’s hero duo.
– We all know what Cristiano and Pepe mean to our country and football. I think they deserved to win and we tried our best.
– Above all, I want to thank them for the example they have given us younger players, not only on the playing field, but also in the training camps, when we have been able to spend time with them.
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