Cristiano Ronaldo’s match against Slovenia was an emotional rollercoaster.
As the Portugal superstar put it, “at first I was sad, and now I’m overjoyed.”
Portugal’s opening match of the Euro 2024 knockout rounds was a frustrating one for Ronaldo through the first 120 minutes. He had several opportunities on goal in the first half, but mistimed his jumps on a couple of header attempts, before having a couple of other shots saved by Slovenian goalkeeper Jan Oblak.
And though he’s generally been a goal-scoring merchant on free kicks, he had not one, not two, but three scoring attempts fly over the bar. Then came the moment that brought him to tears. Ronaldo lined up for a penalty kick just minutes away from stoppage time, but had his confidence shattered after his line-drive kick was parried away by Oblak.
Ronaldo redeemed himself in penalty kicks after extra time ended and with the score knotted at 0-0, and Portugal hit two more goals to make off with a 3-0 PK victory. Ronaldo’s grief turned to immense joy, and he’ll look to turn things around in a quarterfinal matchup against France.
But the 39-year-old’s struggles have been obvious in this tournament. The man who’s scored a goal in five separate UEFA Euro Cups, more than anyone else, has yet to notch one in the 2024 tournament. Yet he fired off more shots in the Slovenia matchup than Scotland did in all three of its group stage games combined. Meanwhile, he had already taken 12 total shots in Portugal’s first three games.
But for Jimmy Conrad, the team needs to widen its approach instead of centralizing its attack wholly around Ronaldo. Or else it will be in grave danger of falling to a stacked France team.
“I want to see some of the other players step up and take some more of the responsibility that I think they defer to him,” Conrad said on “FOX Soccer NOW.” “… The whole orbit gets sucked into Cristiano, and I feel like that takes away from the effectiveness of some of the other players.”
Melissa Ortiz and Wes Morgan agreed, with Ortiz opining that star winger Rafael Leão needs to be a larger part of Portugal’s plans.
“Wes and I were talking about this during the game when Leão was getting subbed off,” she reflected, “what a top class player, so crafty, so fast, so creative. At the club level [he] does fantastic. … But no real significant impact or result, and … the question there, is it Cristiano? Or is it they can’t really build off each other, they can’t play with each other? You need to have that type of connection on the field, and I don’t think that’s something that we’ve seen today, nor in the majority of this tournament between the two.”
Oritz finished her sentiments with perhaps the hottest take of the tournament.
“If I had to put my money on someone to keep on the field, I think I’d prefer Leão over Cristiano at this point.”
Morgan also emphasized that Portugal had to get realistic about its reliance on Ronaldo.
“He’s had chances, he’s had so many chances,” Morgan said. “… Through the group stages, you have the most shots on goal without scoring in the whole tournament. Today, he had so many chances. I lost count of how many free kicks he had. He missed the penalty. … Gets his goal, albeit in the penalty shootout, he still remains in the tournament, he’s still the main man for Portugal.”
Ronaldo will be the man for Portugal until he calls it quits, but that day is coming sooner rather than later. Does Portugal have a chance if it continues to play through its main man?
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