Team history scorer Cristiano Ronaldo is still scoring, but Portugal s shortcomings cannot be thrown away

40-year-old Ronaldo is still setting his goal record!

In the semi-finals of the European National League A League with Germany, Ronaldo scored the winning goal in the 68th minute, helping Portugal overtake the score. In the end, he led the team to advance to the final 2-1.

However, Ronaldo, who is still scoring goals, still cannot avoid external doubts. After all, at the age of 40, far away from the five major leagues, he is still bound to the core position, which makes many people wonder whether this Portuguese team really cannot live without Ronaldo?

40-year-old Ronaldo is still scoring a goal. In this game, he crossed his teammates in the middle and passed each other.

Ronaldo continues to set a new goal record

The goals in this game have brought Cristiano Ronaldo's total career goals to 937. Currently, he has a break-in lead in the Portuguese team's history scorer list, scoring a total of 137 goals; Pauletta, who ranked second, scored only 47 goals; legendary Eusibio ranked third, scoring 42 goals; Figo ranked fourth, scoring 32 goals.

expands the scope to the world, and Ronaldo's national team's goals also makes it difficult for the scorer kings of other countries to beat. Messi, the second place, scores 112 goals, and Iranian scores Ali Dai, the third place, scores 109 goals. It is worth mentioning that even if Ronaldo scores after he is 30 years old as a reference, his 85 goals can still squeeze into the top ten of this list, surpassing many powerful team-hit scorers. Data shows that Brazil's Neymar scored 79 goals, England's Kane scored 71 goals, Spain's Villa scored 59 goals, Germany's Klose scored 71 goals, Sweden's Ibrahimovic scored 62 goals, and France's Giroud scored 57 goals.

In addition to continuing to move forward in personal data, Ronaldo and Portugal also broke the vicious circle of "not winning against Germany". Portugal's last victory over Germany can be traced back to the distant European Cup group stage in 2000. Ronaldo was only 15 years old at that time. Then Portugal suffered all Germany's defeats five times. Ronaldo was a witness, including the embarrassing 0-4 in the first match of the 2014 World Cup.

It can be said that this game made Ronaldo and Portugal refreshed. Ronaldo posted on social media at the first time after the game. He wrote: "Forward, Portugal!"

Between Ronaldo and Ramos, coach Martinez voted for Ronaldo.

The head coach still trusts Ronaldo

Of course, even if he can still score goals, as Ronaldo grows older, he has always been controversial with the national team. He is already 40 years old and has long faded out of the five major leagues. Will Portugal bring him to the US, Canada and Mexico World Cup? Do you still want to use him as the core? Even the coach of the Portuguese national team is too lazy to avoid this topic. He said: "Discussion of Ronaldo is like talking about the weather, and everyone has their own opinions." Judging from the current situation, at least Portuguese national team coach Martinez still trusts Ronaldo.

The head coach has repeatedly stated in public that "Royce is very important to the whole team." Before the UEFA European League semi-finals, the media asked the head coach about the playing time of Ronaldo and Paris center Gonzalo Ramos, and Martinez's answer was also full of hints.

He said: "Royce's medical report proves that he is suitable for the game. I am satisfied with all the players on the roster, but some players play more time in the club, while others are less. For example, there are 4 players who want to participate in the Champions League final (the Champions League final was not yet started), and Gonzalo is one of them."

Martinez seems to want to say that Gonzalo Ramos, who had just finished the Champions League final, might need to rest. In fact, the Paris center played only 6 minutes in the Champions League final, but he did not get a single minute in this game. Ronaldo played for a full 90 minutes before being replaced by midfielder Palinia.

40-year-old Ronaldo can still jump so high.

It must be admitted that the 40-year-old Ronaldo still played a high level. In addition to the goals, the game data showed that Ronaldo shot 7 times, the highest in the game, and the highest in the game; in addition, he had an 86.7% pass success rate, including 1 key pass; a total of 4 ground confrontations, two successful times; 1 clearance, 1 interception, and was violated twice. After the game, Ronaldo was scored the highest in the team of 7.6 points, second only to German team Kimmich (8.0 points) and Werz (7.8 points).

Ronaldo is not a game to show. In the past 18 games he scored, Portugal maintained a complete victory. The last time Ronaldo failed to win the goal was in June 2021. At that time, Portugal faced the strong France in the European Cup group stage and Ronaldo scored twice.

From this perspective, Martinez continued to use Ronaldo to play the main force and press Ramos on the bench, which is not outrageous. After all, Ramos is far away from the starting lineup in Paris. Enrique's usual style of play is to let the number one star Dembele serve as the "pseudo-9" and occupy the center position. Then the question is, the more Ramos is, the more likely it is that Ronaldo will play as a core player to the 2026 World Cup. In other words, the most important competition in Portugal still has to rely on a man who is already 41 years old by then, which sounds a bit unrealistic.

Currently, coach Martinez maintains a very harmonious relationship with Cristiano Ronaldo. While enjoying Cristiano Ronaldo's goal, he also has to bear the drag caused by a 40-year-old player.

The team's history scorer king is the biggest shortcoming

The current national team is called "the best Portugal in the past 10 years" by Martinez. The defense is led by the strong R&F Ruben Dias. The midfielder B and B are still in their prime. Vitinia has transformed into the best midfield metronome in Europe. The midfielder composed of him and Neves has just helped Paris win the Champions League. In terms of the front line, in addition to Leo, Neto and Trincon also have good strength. If you want to find a key position in the Portuguese team that cannot reach the first-class level, it is precisely the center that Ronaldo plays as the center..

Sometimes the data is deceptive. This season, Ronaldo scored 33 goals in various competitions in Riyadh, but the team still has no championship, which has attracted many Saudi fans' doubts. Some fans even urged Ronaldo to retire as soon as possible. The disheartened Ronaldo once wanted to change the ball, but Riyadh continued to retain Ronaldo and was willing to offer a two-year contract. However, anyone with discerning eyes knew that Saudi Arabia's financial backers valued more the eyeball effect brought by Ronaldo.

The same problem will also occur with the Portuguese national team. Ronaldo can still score goals, such as successfully eating cakes in this game, but it is an indisputable fact that he is powerless in the key game. The 2022 World Cup is an example, and the 2024 European Cup has become a watershed in his career - he has played 5 times without any results, ending the legendary record of goals scored in 10 consecutive competitions. Will Ronaldo get better in the 2026 World Cup? No one dares to guarantee it.

With Superman's self-discipline, Ronaldo can also play in the professional league. He may still be the best 40-year-old player on the planet, but that's all. The World Cup final circle is different from the Saudi League and the European League. Even though there are too many fans around the world who expect Ronaldo to realize his dream, the prospect of Portugal tied to Ronaldo will inevitably be confusing.

Portuguese coach Martinez has always said that winning the World Cup is Portugal's ultimate goal. Now it seems that the US, Canada and Mexico World Cup is the best opportunity during the term of the head coach, but a Cristiano Ronaldo put this talented Portugal invisibly under the shackles. Martinez has no conclusion on how long Cristiano Ronaldo will play in the national team. He said: "No one can predict this time point, and even Cristiano Ronaldo himself has no specific plan."

It can be foreseen that Cristiano Ronaldo will make his last try for the World Cup, which is also what fans around the world want to see, but if Cristiano Ronaldo and the Portuguese dream come true, Martinez will probably do more work in the arrangement of troops than Cristiano Ronaldo on the court. He needs to formulate effective tactics for Cristiano Ronaldo, and does not have too high fault tolerance. Is this a way out?

Considering the external environment and the current situation of the Portuguese team, for example, Ramos is very useful, and there is not enough space to test the new players, Martinez has no more choice at the moment, so he is ready to go all the way to the end.