Cristiano Ronaldo misses a clear chance versus France. Ronaldo might wake up in the middle of the night in the coming weeks after this miss.
French defender Dayot Upamecano falls for Ronaldo’s subtle trickery and gives him the window of opportunity to score.
Ronaldo did brilliantly to dart one way and then back the other way to get open. To lose his marker, Upamecano, but he wasn’t able to wrap his foot around the soccer ball and score.
Overall, Ronaldo desperately wanted to win and score for his country. Yet he might have done better coming off the bench and supporting the younger talent Portugal has tons of in their side.
Sadly, this chance might just have Ronaldo thinking about it for quite a while. At 39, he has most likely played his last game for Portugal in any kind of big tournament like the Euros. The chance too comes in extra time, so Ronaldo’s legs must have been tired.
In fact, many soccer pundits and experts wondered if Ronaldo should have started for Portugal at all. Due to his age, they thought he’d be better coming off the bench. That seems like the right take, especially in hindsight. While Ronaldo showed his skills, including a few of his trademark step overs, over the course of 90 minutes he would fade and not even touch the ball for stretches of time.
Moreover, Ronaldo is sometimes such a magnet for his team that he pushes out other players. He’s taking all the free kicks. He’s asking for the ball when he can’t do much with it since he’s unable to sprint like he used to. Portugal’s players might feel they have to get Ronaldo the ball when someone else is more open.
Francisco Conceição, who had surprisingly come on for Bruno Fernandes, delivered a perfect chance for Ronaldo. Conceição raced past French defender Theo Hernández to get to the endline and cut the ball back to Ronaldo. Only to see Ronaldo miss the goal entirely.
Even the best soccer players in the world miss clear chances sometimes. Watch the video below of Portugal forward Cristiano Ronaldo missing a sitter of a chance for his country. The Cristiano Ronaldo miss versus France is surely hard to watch for Portugal fans.
OH RONALDO 😅
He’s definitely going to be thinking about this one for a while pic.twitter.com/inRouPZp6X
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) July 5, 2024
Some blame Portugal manger Roberto Martinez, who decided not to drop Ronaldo as the previous manager had. Finally, the stats are the facts, showing that Ronaldo had the chances and shots but failed to score in the 2024 Euro tournament:
From ESPN FC. “The numbers are cold and merciless. Ronaldo took 23 shots in this tournament, the second most by any player failing to score in the Euros since the group stage format was introduced in 1980. His expected goals of 3.51 without finding the net are the most ever at a major men’s tournament since 1980.”
Here’s what Rio Ferdinand said about Cristiano. Of course Ronaldo is his former teammate at Manchester United.
“I don’t wanna be seeing any Cristiano memes on my timeline. Yes, Portugal went out but this guy’s desire to win, score and mentality will always be one for kids to look at for generations!”
Ferdinand is certainly not wrong about Ronaldo’s desire to win. I think his age just caught up to him.
