Portugal's disappointing 1-1 draw against DR Congo opened a debate about Cristiano Ronaldo's involvement, who played the full 90 minutes and was unable to score, and according to some pundits, hampered the efforts of his teammates with a selfish performance, looking to score himself rather than the team.
The criticism towards Ronaldo has opened a rift, at least among Ronaldo's fans (not necessarily Portuguese fans), and Portuguese outlet Record reports that the social media accounts of other Portuguese players have been filled with thousands of attacks.
João Neves, who scored the opening goal of the match against the African nation, has been the most targeted player because he said that Ronaldo "is no different from us": "We know what Cristiano has done for us, but right now he's no different from us. He's just another player to help out. He's no different from the others." But others like Bruno Fernandes, Vitinha or Pedro Neto have also been targeted with comments demanding "respect" to Ronaldo and accusing them of not passing the ball to him, some implying there is a boycott between the players against CR7.
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The situation is so severe that Vítor Pinto, deputy director of Record, said that this shows "the risk of a civil war we could have within the national team" (via Marca). Pinto said he doesn't believe there is an organised boycott against Portugal, but "it is true that Portugal didn't communicate with their centre forward, nor did they have a strategy in which the centre forward created spaces for other players to break through the defence and finish".
So, was it Ronaldo's fault for being selfish and not helping his teammates score, like Thierry Henry said, or was it a tactical failure by coach Roberto Martínez? We may have to wait until Portugal's next match, against Uzbekistan on Tuesday, June 23, 19:00 CEST, 18:00 BST, to find out...