Portugal face a playoff to qualify for the 2022 World Cup after defeat to Serbia. Gab Marcotti and Julien Laurens break down a dismal qualifying campaign for the Group A favourites and wonder if the blame falls more on Cristiano Ronaldo or coach Fernando Santos.
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38 Comments
Besides Cancelo, who is the other suspended player for Portugal?
Poor old Ronaldo,
oh how sorry,
club or country,
same ol’ story!
Portugal cannot defend, has no dog in the midfield at all. A team with great hair and suntans.
You guys aren’t talking about how selfish Sanches and Jota are. These two need to give the ball to CR7. Instead they tried to do it all by themselves. One has to wonder if they hate having CR7 on the team.
SANTOS OUT ! OUT OUT ! OUT !
SANTO OUT ! AND Also the stolen GOAL from RONALDO last game gave Win to Serbia…
Same problem for juve, manu and now Portugal. Time to go. Sorry dear!! Please know when to stop
Tubeman?
Where are all the Portuguese that were crying everywhere few months ago that "Portugal is underrated"?
The entire Portugal squad loses match to a a good Serbia performance
ESPN: Put the attention on Ronaldo, that will get us clicks
🔥🤬 Portugal should have gone through 1st in the group because the first game vs Serbia they scored a clear goal that went over goal line completely and was never checked by VAR. the football corruption continues
For the last 20 years apart from rade antic serbia has had coaches who have been b grade coaches. Serbias football is no different to croatia's , balkan football is the same school all along the region. Portugal were maybe tired because of ireland and i hope portugal qualifies but the winds of change are happening in serbian football and it all has to do with mentality and that mentality has been instilled into them by no other than dragan stojkovic piksi. Piksi was top three players in the world in the 90s And only injury has took this thing away from him. We finally played how we are capable of playing and this shocked portugal.
Thanks Jules, you spoke my mind about Fernando Santos, he's not just good enough. There was no connection between the midfield and the attack. Imagine Renato Sanchez holding on to the ball for too long without feeding the attackers. And Bernardo Silva suddenly turned "Maradona" and the home fans were cheering because of that without realizing that he's hurting the team. If Bernardo Silva plays like that for Pep Guardiola and the Cityzens lose the game, I bet you he's not going to be in the next game.
Ronaldo is old. Don't expect him to carry Portugal now, he is single-handedly saving Manchester United every 4 or 5 games.
Portugals problem is the coach and 2nd is they want to play Cristiano Ronaldo in every single game despite knowing that they have the generation of players like jota, Bernado, Felix, Bruno, Neves who could qualify easily without CR7
Yep coach has to be blamed bcoz of going full defensively when they're playing in their own Arena, but dont forget how Belgium defended the goal by T.Hazard against Portugal in RO16 , Lukaku was the only 1 guy in the mid pitch and all the players are in defensive play. Lukaku perfectly shields the ball and made few perfect runs and When will Cr7 accept his failure, playing as a Striker, 0 shots on target, very rarely participating in buildups. He never let his wingers run by holding the ball. Check whenever Kane holds Sterling makes runs and in Belgium look at the runs of their wingers when Lukaku Shields the ball. Lewandowski in bayern is lethal man , he's letting Entire Bayern Midfield towards the box. CR7 is neither trying to dribble past defeders nor he shielding the ball to make their wingers run, these are a basic attribute to a Player who plays as a striker in any team. But Cr7 is playing as a Striker, who's shooting only if the ball is provided to him. Aint this CR7's mistake , check Andre Silva in Leipzig vs PSG an example for how to he a striker. CR7 is failing in that position. he's forgetting his role.
For me the biggest story of the game was not the score but the way Serbia dominated Portugal in all the statistics in which I personally was shocked, I think this all because of Stojkovic..he was my top two Serbian players
Great analysis, hat down for football understanding from these 2 lads. Serbia dominated the game and Portugal needs to work a lot on their tactics if they want through.
I want portugal to keep ronaldo until he's 42.
And MU too..
I know once he stays these 2 teams will not anything of note..
Penaldo is selfish. He should retire from the national team and give youngsters a chance, but the greed never finishes.
They won euro 2016 because of ronaldo's coaching.🏆
Ronaldo's legitimate goal was disallowed against Serbia otherwise they would have already qualified for the wc and these guys want to blame cristiano
Love the France 98 shirt. Brings back happy memories following that tournament. 🥺
Taking a nation to the WC on the last day is NOT for everyone. Only GOAT can do it.
Santos may have to go, but do you change him now before the March 2022 playoff round?
Haters will ofcourse say its ronaldo esp messi fan boys
So no one's gonna talk about the wrongly disallowed goal by CR7 at the end of the match?
Portugal need to learn from MU mistakes. You cannot build a team around Cristiano…
If this was Messi he would get slaughtered just finish above Serbia u qualify
Fred from desempenados (however u spell) can coach Portugal 🇵🇹
🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸👍👍👍
Lets be honest… Portugal have one most expensive team. I think about 380m€(not sure)… And Serbia have like 50-60m like. But look at Tadic(ajax), Vlahovic(fiorentina), Mitrovic(fhulam)… SMS,Jovic, Maksimovic… Theay are all great players, they dont have that much stong and famous managers to set them great contracts… But why they are not just better than portugal players? Bcs cr7? He doesnt even play that much good last 1 year, he get old. + Serbia got most respectfull coach at japan mister Pixi. All u know how much Japanese people are strict. Mister brings new energy at national team. Trust me, Serbia with this team, and this coach, and this mental strenght can beat everyone at worldcup!
PS. Sry for bad language
CR7 become more cry baby than football player. That is problem. He cant expect no one will let him win just becouse he is CR… Cry baby
Get Nuno santo right now !!
When messi scores in World Cup 2022 ,he will comment Factos from his mansion
Santos doesn't call up the right players and puts players in wrong positions
I am here after ronaldo finally qualified for qatar world cup💯through playoffs and nutmeg assist👍
Did Ronaldo tell the team to park the bus against Serbia?
Exactly.