- Ronaldo failed to convert from the spot
- Broke down in tears after the miss
- Didi Hamann blasted Ronaldo’s reaction
WHAT HAPPENED?
Ronaldo’s extra-time penalty was saved by Slovenian goalkeeper Jan Oblak. The 39-year-old Portuguese forward was visibly distraught at half-time in extra time, with teammates attempting to console him after the miss.
THE BIGGER PICTURE
Despite Ronaldo’s missed opportunity, Portugal eventually triumphed in a penalty shootout, with goalkeeper Diogo Costa saving all three of Slovenia’s penalty attempts. The Al-Nassr forward managed to convert his own penalty during the shootout and subsequently apologised to the fans for his earlier miss but his actions did not go well with former Liverpool and Germany midfielder Didi Hamann.
WHAT HAMANN SAID
Working as a pundit for Irish TV station RTE, Hamann said: “Thirty-nine-year-old plays 120 minutes, he misses a penalty and I’ve got to say, I bought into all that ‘Ronaldo has turned into a team player because he needs the team more than he used to’. I bought into that nonsense as well, but I think he showed his true colours again tonight.
“Missing the penalty, he starts crying on the pitch, he starts crying at half-time in extra-time. And I’m thinking ‘it’s all about you’. There’s a squad of 26 players, there’s 20 staff, there’s 30 or 40,000 fans in there, it’s not about you. You try to be mutual, but I was cheering Slovenia on because I thought the reaction was embarrassing, I thought it was out of order. I’ve never seen anything like it, because once you show emotions, once you get emotional, it’s the end of it. So that was the point where the manager had to say, ‘you’ve got to come off because you’re not in the right frame of mind to carry on playing’.
“Credit to him he took the first penalty and he took it well, it was a very good penalty, but as I said I bought into all that ‘Ronaldo’s turned into a team player’, it’s absolute nonsense. All he thinks about is himself. He scores the penalty and apologises to the fans, he doesn’t need to apologise. He will start the next game but I can’t see any other outcome than a France win.”
WHAT NEXT FOR RONALDO?
Ronaldo’s performance in Euro 2024 has been under scrutiny, as he has yet to score in the tournament and has now gone eight matches without a goal for Portugal in major competitions. He will look to end his goal drought when Portugal will lock horns with France in the quarterfinals on Friday evening in Hamburg.
