“Proud of what?”: Ricardo Quaresma slams Martínez | OneFootball

Following Portugal’s elimination from the 2026 World Cup, sealed by a 0-1 defeat to Spain, Ricardo Quaresma delivered harsh criticism of head coach Roberto Martínez and the performance of the team.

The former Portugal international questioned the “pride” shown by the Spanish coach and argued that Portugal’s output was “far too little” for the quality available in the squad.

“Proud of what? I still don’t understand this pride he has,” Ricardo Quaresma began, speaking to LiveModeTV. “He was with Belgium with a fantastic generation and never achieved anything. He comes here to Portugal with an incredible generation and still hasn’t achieved anything. We won a Nations League. Are we going to be happy with a Nations League? For me, that’s not enough,” he fired back.

Given this situation, Roberto Martínez’s departure would, in his view, be inevitable. “There are things that make me angry. If we didn’t have talent and quality, then fine. But you have huge talent and quality!” he stressed, blaming the coach for the team’s lack of identity: “Whose fault is the identity? The coach’s. I still haven’t figured out the right tactic to play with.”

When analyzing the decisive match at Dallas Stadium, Quaresma felt that Nuno Mendes’s injury was a decisive moment, as it allowed Spain to gain the upper hand in the game. Even so, his view went beyond that incident and focused mainly on the attitude of the Portuguese team. “Even today, you handed the game to Spain from start to finish. Spain controlled the whole game, doing whatever they wanted (…) and we were just there with no desire, no joy, very slow,” he lamented.

The former Portugal international also placed responsibility on the players, arguing that they “didn’t give what they had to give,” and described the midfield as “very weak” and the defense as “lost.” Even so, he kept the coach at the center of his criticism. “Martínez has never convinced me. He tried 50 tactics, none of them worked. And there’s the proof,” he concluded, adding: “We’re going out with the national team everyone said was the best of all time… but best of all time in what sense? What have they done? What have they won?”

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