Portugal may have progressed to the Euro 2024 quarter-finals after dispatching Slovenia but, as has been the case this tournament, Cristiano Ronaldo’s struggles are the main talking point of Roberto Martinez’s side’s victory. The 39-year-old has been a man on a relentless mission this summer. After missing a penalty in extra-time, it’s starting to become mission impossible.
From minute one, the famous number seven has been desperate to get his name on the scoresheet. And the way his talented teammates are playing, it’s as if they are being told to cater to Ronaldo’s every whim. In doing so, a side that were tipped to go far at the beginning of the summer are at risk of going home in disappointing fashion.
Ronaldo Desperate to Make History
The forward is looking to score in his sixth consecutive championship
Football’s greatest ever goalscorer is not shy when it comes to breaking records. After all, he holds countless. However, his obsession with one in particular is slowly becoming the root of Portugal’s problems at this tournament.
Incredibly, it is not a landmark that Ronaldo is looking to break that is consuming him. It’s one that the forward is trying to extend. Going into Euro 2024, the Real Madrid legend was the only player to have scored in five European Championships. Having made his debut in 2004, the then-teenager scored on his competition debut and has since bagged at the 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020 (postponed until 2021) editions of the tournament.
Despite plying his trade with Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia since 2023, Ronaldo’s position as Portugal’s focal point has never been under threat. Because of that, it seems that the superstar came into the tournament thinking less about his nation’s chances of winning it, and more about his chances of scoring for the sixth championship running.
The goal machine’s most die-hard fans will come to his defence by saying that if that was the case, why would he have so unselfishly assisted Bruno Fernandes against Turkey when the goal was at his mercy? That’s a fair argument, and Ronaldo is ever the consummate professional, so coming away with the trophy will be his number one priority. That doesn’t mean it’s his only one, mind, nor does it mean his other priorities aren’t affecting him and the rest of the squad.
Stats Highlight Ronaldo’s Troubles In Front of Goal
CR7 is taking chances away from his teammates
After starting all four games this tournament, the Portugal talisman has taken 20 shots on goal without scoring. Not only is that the worst record of any player at Euro 2024, but it also puts Ronaldo’s display in the top five most inefficient performances in European Championship history.
The reason for his failure to put the ball in the back of the next boils down to the fact that the veteran’s desperation to score has seen him attempt a plethora of low xG chances. An image curated by Opta after the penalty miss against Slovakia only highlights this problem further.
From his twenty efforts on goal, Ronaldo has walked away with an xG of just 2.66. Aside from the penalty and a couple of other better opportunities, the majority of these attempts appear as small circles that represent low xG chances. The efforts inside the 18-yard-box are dramatically reduced in situations where the striker is attempting to force a shot on goal from either a tight angle or with a defender in between him and the back of the net.
What’s perhaps more damning, is how wasteful the star has chosen to be from distance. In the image, seven low xG attempts have been made from outside the penalty area. The majority of these have been free-kicks, which Ronaldo remains adamant on taking, despite the fact he has a poor record in international tournament football.
In 33 efforts, Portugal’s most capped player has scored zero times from a free-kick in Euros tounaments. Moreover, he has managed to score just one in any international tournament, coming when he completed a late hat-trick in a 3-3 draw with Spain at the 2018 World Cup, giving him a conversation rate of just 1.7% (one scored from 60 attempts).
With the likes of Bruno Fernandes, Vitinha and Bernardo Silva all capable from dead-ball situations, it seems as though no one is capable of wrestling power away from Ronaldo, which is negatively impacting Portugal.
Portugal’s Tournament Continues
A quarter-final tie against France awaits
Talk of Ronaldo’s missed opportunities is all well and good, but the facts are the facts. By hook or by crook, Portugal are in the quarter-finals of Euro 2024. Standing in their way of the final four is a once imperious France side. This tournament, Didier Deschamps’ men haven’t been at their best, but on any given day they can beat anyone in the world.
Despite not showcasing the sort of attacking football that being blessed with the likes of Kylian Mbappe and Antoine Griezmann should give you, the one area of the pitch that Les Bleus remain strong in is defence. Three clean sheets in four games is the reason why the 2018 world champions have made it to the last-eight, with only a Robert Lewandowski penalty breaking them down.
With such a strong back-line to contest with, Roberto Martinez needs to utilise all of his own attacking talent in the best way possible in order to overcome a steep obstacle. Fernandes, Silva, Rafael Leao and more need to be allowed to work as a collective unit, playing to each other’s strengths to cause the opposition problems. What cannot happen, is that their captain takes over, picking up spaces where he is ineffective and wasting chance after chance again in pursuit of history that already belongs to him.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different outcome. That’s what Portugal and Ronaldo are continuing to do. The warning has already been fired by Slovenia regardless of the penalty shootout victory. Something has to give when two of the pre-tournament favourites meet in Hamburg on Friday.
Stats via Optaand UEFA – accurate as 02/07/2024.