Time for Portugal to move on from Cristiano Ronaldo? This should be Bruno’s team now | OneFootball

They tried their best. In the wake of Kylian Mbappe and especially Erling Haaland but especially Lionel Messi all making their spectacular mark on the tournament yesterday, the BBC tried their very hardest to pretend Cristiano Ronaldo was doing so for Portugal in a limp 1-1 draw against an inspired DR Congo.

You just had to really, really squint to notice it. A lengthy half-time glazing from the punditry team focused on Ronaldo’s elite ability to, um, stand offside and look moody. He was occupying defenders, you see. There was something about being able to see or not see his shirt number, whichever is good.

He was playing very well, and it was important for everyone to realise this. Elite sport isn’t always about the touches you make, but the touches you don’t make. And Ronaldo was brilliantly not having any touches. If you didn’t appreciate the brilliance of his display, that’s on you. That’s your skill issue and absolutely definitely not his. No sir.

In the second half he did at least manage to have a couple of shots. They went wide. The first of those efforts, that didn’t arrive until just before the Hydration Break, also wasn’t his fault, you see, because the ball was kicked at him quite hard. What’s a mere legend of the game supposed to do with that?

In truth, Ronaldo’s performance was as fraudulent as that Hydration Break, one in which Roberto Martinez desperately tried to get some instructions to his underperforming players, not one of whom even pretended to take on any liquid whatsoever in 20-degree temperatures inside an air-conditioned stadium.

FIFA need to get the message out to teams. They’re going to have to at least go through the motions at the ‘Hydration’ Break. Otherwise there’s a very real danger people will start to see through it.

But really, going through the motions was an apt description of a deeply disappointing performance from Portugal. It wasn’t just at the Hydration Breaks that they let themselves down.

From the moment Joao Neves’ improbable but undeniable aerial prowess earned them an early lead, this was a slipshod effort from Ronaldo and co. They sleepwalked through the rest of the first half, seemingly under the belief that the job was done against a DR Congo team that never got that memo.

Warning signs were cheerfully and brazenly ignored long before some alarmingly lax defending from a corner allowed Yoane Wissa to head home a thoroughly deserved equaliser on the stroke of half-time.

And Portugal never meaningfully improved after the break, urgency arriving too late and too one-dimensionally with the wit and craft of Vitinha sacrificed for the more direct charms of Goncalo Ramos.

Even then, a DR Congo side who only made the tournament via the inter-confederation play-offs looked every bit as capable of finding a late winner as their much-fancied opponents.

Of course, nothing is f*cked for Portugal. They are far from alone in suffering an early stutter at this tournament, one that offers plenty of second chances.

But they can’t carry on like this. Ronaldo is an elephant in Portugal’s room. You can argue if you must about the relative merits of him and Messi at their peak, there is no comparison to make between them at all now. Ronaldo’s extra years have taken a sharp toll.

Messi remains the driving force behind a thoroughly capable Argentina team; Ronaldo is if anything now a burden on a team that is arguably stronger than Argentina man for man.

Ronaldo contributed only 25 touches in the game, none of them memorable. The only member of Portugal’s starting XI to touch the ball less was Bernardo Silva with 23. And he came off at half-time.

It really feels like this is a team that should now hand the keys to Bruno Fernandes. We’ve spent the last year watching just what he can do when trusted to be the main man; in this Portugal team where the wattage of Ronaldo leaves everyone else in the dark he feels like a conspicuously wasted member of a talented supporting cast ready to step out from the shadows.

Portugal have all the necessary ingredients to win this World Cup. The uncomfortable truth they may have to face is that the most satisfying combination no longer features a colossus of the game who is now, at 41, but a pale imitation of his best self.