Cristiano Ronaldo once again found himself under scrutiny after a quiet display in Portugal‘s opening World Cup match against DR Congo. The Portugal captain failed to score as his side were held to a 1-1 draw in a game many expected them to win comfortably. Ronaldo struggled to influence proceedings and finished with just 25 touches, the fewest he has recorded in a major tournament match for Portugal when playing the full 90 minutes. He rarely threatened in front of goal and found it difficult to impose himself on the contest as DR Congo’s defence kept him largely under control. The performance has reignited debate over his role in the starting XI, particularly given Portugal’s wealth of attacking options. Head coach Roberto Martinez has also faced criticism for keeping Ronaldo on the pitch throughout the match despite his struggles, with some questioning whether changes should have been made earlier.
Martinez defended his decision to keep Ronaldo on the pitch despite the criticism surrounding the veteran forward’s performance. The Portugal coach backed his captain, arguing that removing the game’s most prolific goalscorer would have made little sense when Portugal were still searching for a winning goal.
“It made no sense at all to take off Cristiano Ronaldo, who is the best goalscorer in history, off the field when we were looking for goals,” Martinez said in the press conference.
Martinez felt Portugal’s problems began after taking the lead, arguing that his side moved away from the aggressive approach that had brought them early success. The Portugal coach believed his players became too focused on retaining possession, allowing DR Congo to settle into the game and execute their plans more effectively.
“We started very, very well,” Martinez said, “our level, our control, the way we got into the penalty area. Scoring the goal — which is normally a moment when the emotion of scoring helps you keep control of the match and try to score a second goal — had the opposite effect. Instead, it made us want to keep possession of the ball. We gave Congo the opportunity to reorganise their defensive structure and set up their counterattacks, and we lost a lot of depth. That helped Congo,” he added.
“Argentina lost to Saudi and then win World Cup”
Despite the disappointing result, Martinez urged calm and pointed to past World Cups in which eventual champions suffered early setbacks. The Portugal coach insisted that one poor performance does not define a campaign and stressed that his side must learn from the experience rather than overreact to it.
“The World Cup is a tournament where these things happen,” he said. “Argentina lost to Saudi Arabia [in 2022] and then went on to win the World Cup. In 2010, Spain lost to Switzerland and then won the World Cup. Those weren’t performances that looked like those of eventual champions, but that’s part of the process. What we’re talking about here is the first match of a World Cup,” Martinez emphasized. Today, after we scored the opening goal, those emotions had a negative effect on our performance. We stopped taking risks, we stopped looking for space, we stopped reaching the final third. That was more a matter of emotion than of tactics or technique. It happens. It’s part of the World Cup. Now we evaluate it and improve for the second match,” he concluded.
