The Seleccao skipper remains a serious attacking threat, but as we saw against Czech Republic, he can’t always the be star of the show anymore.
Roberto Martinez always talks a great game – even after a poor one. The focus is always on the positives, never the negatives, so there was nothing surprising about his enthusiastic reaction to Portugal’s highly fortuitous 2-1 win over Czech Republic in their Euro 2024 opener in Frankfurt on Tuesday.
There was even a not-so-subtle public plea to avoid over-analysing the performance. “Today, it’s not about assessing the game from a technical or tactical point of view,” he told reporters afterwards. “Today we won because we showed resilience, willpower and belief. “
He was certainly right in that regard. Tactics had little to do with Portugal’s victory; it was all down to fighting spirit and good fortune.
Of course, two of Martinez’s substitutes had proven decisive, with Pedro Neto providing the deflected cross from which Francisco Conceicao scored his injury-time winner. They also say that fortune favours the brave, and Portugal had five forwards on the field when the full-time whistle blew. Maybe one could, therefore, argue that they deserved their rub of the green.
“The important thing is not the starting 11,” Martinez argued, “but how the game ends.” It’s a good line, but certainly doesn’t hide the fact that both he and his team got away with one against the Czechs. Portugal were poor and there were several reasons why…
Portugal’s leading man
Cristiano Ronaldo missed two chances against the Czechs that everyone expected him to score, but he was hardly Portugal’s principal problem – and even if he were, he wouldn’t be dropped. Martinez could have easily ditched him after the forward’s disastrous 2022 World Cup. Instead, he allowed him to continue as captain and constructed his entire team around Ronaldo.
Consequently, at 39 years of age, and at his sixth European Championship, Ronaldo remains Portugal’s leading man and is surrounded by a stellar supporting cast of playmakers that seemingly have one solo objective: get the ball to their five-time Ballon d’Or winner in the penalty area.
It’s not the worst tactic, of course.
