At a press conference in Qatar not long after arriving in this country, sitting with the 19-year-old talent Antonio Silva, captain Fernando Santos received too many questions about Ronaldo. This is not uncommon because normally, CR7 is always the brightest star, this time it was right when he had just experienced the biggest scandal of his career with Manchester United.
At the same time as the interview between Ronaldo and Piers Morgan in episode 2 was broadcast on ITV, Portugal had a 4-0 victory over Nigieria. This match was the last warm-up run for Bruno Fernandes and his teammates. They did very well, very smoothly and of course did not need the appearance of Ronaldo.
Not only did Bruno play well as usual, other stars who were expected such as Joao Felix or Goncalo Ramos also had a day of competition that left many impressions. Especially for Felix, the Atletico striker played as if a pretty poor performance since the beginning of the season had never happened.
So in the end, does the "European Selecao" need Ronaldo or not? In the last 9 caps since the beginning of the year, CR7 has only scored 2 goals. In those 9 times, he played all 8 matches. Despite his poor performance, if Ronaldo does not appear in the opening match against Ghana next Thursday, it will be a huge media shock.
Ronaldo may cause a storm at M.U and is playing less and less, but he is an important factor in bringing home the EURO 2016 title and is also the player with the record for the most goals scored at the national team level worldwide (117 goals/191 matches). For the Portuguese, Ronaldo is still a hero, as evidenced by the way they cheered when they saw him set foot in Qatar.
All the pressure is now on Santos. 6/11 of the most recent questions at the press conference for him were about Ronaldo. Santos even got frustrated when CNN Portugal asked if he was forced to use Ronaldo. This strategist shared that all players have the same opportunities and no one forces him to do anything. However, if Ronaldo plays and plays poorly, will Santos dare to leave CR7 on the bench when facing his obligations to the national team?
"No, I have no problem with these types of questions. We know that anyone in the world wants to talk about him, that's normal.
He has been at his peak for 20 years. Every time Ronaldo is on the field, everyone wants to watch him play football to learn and analyze many things. We don't care about him, we are all focused on the World Cup.
Regarding that handshake, the media just likes to make it a big deal. What kind of action did I have that everyone had to discuss? We know that anyone who likes to talk or write about him will get attention" - Bruno shared when asked about Ronaldo.
Returning to the "European Selecao", they have never had such a strong squad before a big tournament. At the World Cup, Portugal has only finished in 3rd place once, they are determined to make a difference in this tournament.
Santos currently have a very strong attack including: Ronaldo, Felix, Ramos, Andre Silva, Ricardo Horta, Rafael Leao, Bruno and Bernado Silva. If forced to use CR7, he will have difficulty when these stars can make a breakthrough but still have to carry the additional task of passing to Ronaldo.
Santos is not a master of tactics to the point of being a superstar like Pep Guardiola, so how to arrange the squad for Ronaldo is a difficult problem. He has about 4 days left to find the answer himself.
