After the 2-1 victory over Croatia to qualify for the 1/8 round of the 2026 World Cup, coach Roberto Martinez explained the decision to withdraw Cristiano Ronaldo from the field in the 81st minute - a time when Portugal still needed more goals to create a safe advantage.
Ronaldo scored the equalizer 1-1 from the penalty spot before being replaced by Ruben Neves in the final minutes. This is also the first time the Portuguese national team captain has not played a full match at the 2026 World Cup, after playing 90 minutes in all 3 group stage matches.
Speaking after the match, the Spanish strategist said that the decision to replace Ronaldo came from the need to adjust the tactical system.
We took a risk by using two strikers. However, then the team needed to add a midfielder to control the game, so I decided to take Ronaldo off the field," coach Roberto Martinez said.
Previously, in the 62nd minute, the 52-year-old coach made 4 personnel changes at the same time but still kept Ronaldo on the field for nearly 20 more minutes. According to him, all adjustments were made based on the actual diễn biến of the match.
Coach Martinez said that Portugal initially wanted to deploy the ball a lot in the central area but did not achieve the desired effect. Therefore, the team switched to exploiting the two wings and the movements of Rafael Leao as well as Bernardo Silva to stretch the Croatian midfield, creating space to approach the penalty area.
We have to constantly adjust to suit the game. Replacing four players at the same time is also in that plan. The whole team played quite well in the first half and all decisions were based on what happened on the field," he emphasized.
Besides professional issues, coach Martinez also spoke out to defend the decisions of the refereeing team and VAR technology in the match. He affirmed that Portugal's victory did not come from any element of luck.
I greatly respect Croatia and their fighting spirit. Currently, the balls are all chip-fixed, so VAR has enough data to make decisions. The penalty for Portugal is completely clear. Today there was no wrong decision by the referee," the Spanish strategist affirmed.
The match between Portugal and Croatia also went down in World Cup history when up to 4 goals were disallowed. Croatia put the ball into the opponent's net three times but were all disallowed, while Ronaldo also had a goal that was not counted after VAR entered the game.
