Portugal's World Cup debut was hugely disappointing: despite an early goal by Joao Neves, the team was barely allowed to make two other shots on target by the tight defence of Democratic Republic of Congo, which celebrated their first World Cup goal and World Cup point in a 1-1 draw. All eyes were set on Cristiano Ronaldo, but his performance disappointed, especially less than 24 hours after Messi scored a hat-trick for Argentina.
A lot of criticism was made about his apparent selfishness, and CBS pundit Thierry Henry believes the team could have scored more but Ronaldo's desire to score got in the way. "The team needs to score, not you need to score", and pointed to a specific moment in the second half. "Because he desperately wants to score, he gets in Bruno Fernandes' way. Whereas if he had gone into the six-yard box, the defence would have followed him and it would have been a sure goal for Bruno Fernandes."
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Cristiano Ronaldo played all 90 minutes and is an undisputed starting player under Roberto MartÃnez, but some believe his desire to score and break records at 41 years of age. But his current form is not the best. In fact, Ronaldo has now gone 10 matches in World Cups or UEFA Euros without scoring a goal for Portugal.
Now Ronaldo has likely at least 180 more minutes to try and score... and help their team qualify for the knockouts: against Uzbekistan on Tuesday, June 23, 19:00 CEST, 18:00 BST, and against Colombia on June 28, 01:30 CEST, 00:30 BST.