Match Thread - World Cup 2026 Round of 16: Portugal vs Spain

Yup! Scolari was the only manager. Santos got lucky.

 

Argentinians tired of Messi? Lol, are you serious? The guy won them a ********ing World Cup and looks like he’s about to win another one. They worship him like a god and build the whole team around him exactly like Norway does with Haaland. Meanwhile Ronaldo had Queiroz and Fernando Santos playing that ultra negative, parking the bus bullshit. He was never properly utilized in his prime. And under Martínez? Man that shit was weird as hell with how passive and toothless they looked.

 

Pretending this is a real trophy is part of the problem

 

Halaand gets like two touches a game, they didn’t build a team around him they just built a team. Portugal has always played for Ronaldo literally no idea what you’re talking about.

 

Cristiano Ronaldo, alone, defeated the moors, defeated Castela, wrote "Os Lusíadas", discovered the maritime route to INdia, founded Brazil, explored Africa and the world, invented pastéis de nata, was sitting on a tank in april 25 1974. No less.

 

I mean you are deluded if you think Ronaldo wasn't an issue. You realize one of the reasons this team literally stopped all counter-attacks while in progress, in a way I genuinely have never seen before from any team, is because he can't run to keep up, right?

 

You’re the guy that was making fun of Ramos for scoring a hat trick against quarter final bound Switzerland and praising Ronaldo for a brace against worst team in the wc Uzbekistan right?

 

Uzbeks suck more baby bird

Say one negative thing about Ronaldo. One flaw.

 

I mean it's a pretty simple analysis. We've watched this guy play for 23 years. Specifically, we watched him play in his prime playing around absolute crap players and systems and he was still pull something out of thin air even then.

Here, he's surrounded by world class players and a crap system as well, and literally could not do anything of note. So, much better players and still a bad system but still a net benefit over prior Portuguese teams when he was in his prime. Yet this time he did nothing. Maybe even worse than nothing. That means he's the variable that's changed.

 

He starts and plays 90 minutes every single game, how can you say he is "not given a chance"?

 

Belgium have failed as well... Can they pull an upset? they play as a team and I like their coach.

 

He was, but so was romar... Who had no creativity in his mind. Our wing play was lacking and mf needed to do more, doesn't help vitinha/bruno sucked.

From the group stage we were a bubble team that never got better each game.

 

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/EpOGobkTi58

kids these days need to watch Ronaldo at Euro 2012. Never forget. for me this is Ronaldo. I never saw anything like this before or since from any player. Probably never will.

 

yes it was clear as day and has been for a while. he was never the same after his 2014 injury but was able to carry on another 5 years at atop level. Since 2020 he can hardly move. Then there is the knock on effect. How do we judge Bruno who his entire Portugal career he has been trying to service a false 9/half winger goal poacher. Maybe Bruno would have done poorly regardless but we will never know. Then there is the defensive phase where you have to play Fleix because you can't have both Leao/Ronaldo on the pitch. There are issues with the whole team and style of play but you won't win with a 42 year old striker it's just not possible.

 

Belgum have DeBruyne and Lukaku on the bench they use them as weapons while featuring their young players. If Martinez was still there they would start as he is a romantic.

 

I had Ball Jam as my dark horses. Past their golden generation but somehow perform decent..

 

Ye as much as I love Ronaldo, having him play full 90 in most games was baffling to me.. It would have been more beneficial and dangerous to have him come off the bench later in the 2nd half and create chances in the box.. Going forward, JJ better start Ramos or whatever ST pops up in time for Euro 2028 and next World Cup.

 

lol all you got is he’s not as fast. Brain dead.

Team played like shit in qualifiers too. Not sure what your point is.

Come up with an opinion that you didn’t see your most retarded relative post on facebook

 

It’s funny you say that because we Portuguese always celebrate our history through individuals like Afonso Henriques, Vasco da Gama, Magellan, Prince Henry, Amália and all that. But when it comes to Ronaldo you portuguese get weirdly insecure and rush to say on social media “Ronaldo isn’t bigger than the country” lol. He is part of us though. Would’ve been sick if we had a decent team around him in his prime so we could actually lift the World Cup together. Would had been another chapter in our history. Oh well, life moves on.