😱 CR7: horror numbers, is he still an asset for Portugal? 🇵🇹 | OneFootball

Cristiano Ronaldo wasn’t obliged to answer Messi, or at least he didn’t have to do it with a hat-trick: pulling it off would have been even more epochal than what we saw in Argentina-Algeria. 

But from his pride, hidden yet never completely so, we were all expecting something more. And surely CR7 himself had imagined this Portugal-DR Congo match differently: like those skiers who mime the entire giant slalom course with headphones on, only to crash at the first gate. Cristiano Ronaldo fell, and he made noise doing it.

One of Portugal’s worst performances

The numbers from his match show just how little he contributed to the game:

CR7 did not play alone, and Portugal did not either: the Democratic Republic of the Congo defended in an organised way, made the most of their attackers’ qualities, and punished a light, very light defence without Rúben Dias and Inácio (both on the bench).

Martínez’s team managed only 7 shots, with just 1 on target: it is Portugal’s worst result in that regard at a World Cup from 1966 to today.

Should we still expect something from CR7?

Waiting for Cristiano Ronaldo’s next exploit to decide a match at the highest level feels like a mirage, almost a utopia. Because the moments he has etched into our memory belong to a realm of absolute dominance, but recent history tells a different story.

In fact, CR7 has now gone 10 matches without scoring in a major international tournament (European Championship or World Cup): 33 shots, 11 on target, and 0 goals.

At the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, he scored just once against Ghana, from the penalty spot, while Portugal’s real standout in that tournament was someone else: Gonçalo Ramos, now confined to the bench.

Portugal’s great performances in the Nations League and in the first part of the World Cup qualifiers should not be forgotten, but the question is now becoming a fair one: at the highest level, is CR7 a burden or an advantage?

The answers, and their impact, will not take long to arrive: we will find out in the coming matches, Cristiano Ronaldo’s last at international level. And that may not necessarily be a bad thing.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here.

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