This morning (June 27), Portugal’s second team, led by captain Cristiano Ronaldo, suffered a 0-2 defeat to Georgia in the final match of Group F of Euro 2024. Despite the loss, Portugal had already secured an early ticket to the round of 16 and guaranteed first place in the group before the match. As a result, head coach Roberto Martínez opted to rest many of his key players.
However, Martínez still has one exception, and that is that he still lets captain Ronaldo start in order to find his first goal at Euro 2024. Ronaldo is known as a player who often complains and shows frustration on the field. Throughout his career, fans of Sporting Lisbon, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Juventus, Al Nassr and the Portuguese national team have known him.
And in the last game of the Euro 2024 group stage against Georgia, when Portugal was losing 1-0 after Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s early goal and half an hour of mediocre play, Ronaldo once again had the opportunity to show his anger.
In a situation where Portugal attacked, Pedro Neto crossed into the area and Ronaldo fell to the ground. Ronaldo sat up, complained, raised his hands in the air asking for a penalty. Some of his teammates also raised their hands to demand a penalty. But referee Sandro Scharer didn’t want to know, he was looking at the ball.
On 4 occasions Ronaldo could not control his anger. After falling to the field, Ronaldo and his teammates demanded a penalty. PHOTO: GETTY
Ronaldo pointed to his eyes as if to say that the referee “has eyes but is blind.” PHOTO: GETTY
Ronaldo did not give up, he took off his shirt as if indicating to the Georgian player to take off his shirt in the penalty area. PHOTO: GETTY
It will be a long time until Ronaldo is… happy. PHOTO: GETTY
Ronaldo’s attention was focused on the assistant referee. Already on his knees, Ronaldo gesticulated wildly, pulled down his shirt, pointed to his eyes and asked “why don’t you see that?”
Just like the man in the blue shirt in the middle of the field (referee), the man in the blue shirt on the sidelines (line referee) continues to concentrate on controlling the game. At that moment, Ronaldo turned his gaze towards the technical area of the Portuguese team, where coach Roberto Martínez was on the sidelines. Ronaldo’s message is simple: “Check the screen, the VAR to determine the situation.”
But when the ball went out of play and play stopped very, very briefly, the referee allowed Georgia goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili to kick the ball immediately. And now, Ronaldo has expressed his anger and protest for the fourth time. This time Ronaldo caught the referee’s attention with his arm raised. Ronaldo approached the referee, he was still angry and said something. Immediately, the Swiss referee showed Ronaldo a yellow card.
Ronaldo strutted around, another arm raised in the air, as if disgusted by all the injustices. The stadium screen showed Cristiano Ronaldo’s name and the announcer told everyone watching the game that Ronaldo had received a yellow card. It sparked a frenzy of applause in the stands from the large presence of Georgian fans in Gelsenkirchen.
Ronaldo left the field frustrated after four times of failing to control his anger. PHOTO: REUTERS
It was indeed a miserable night for Ronaldo as Portugal suffered a shocking 2-0 defeat to Georgia. The last image of Ronaldo in the match was his substitution in the 65th minute. Ronaldo left the field and entered the technical area. He pursed his lips and kicked the air, still expressing his disappointment.
Cristiano Ronaldo is yet to score at Euro 2024 despite winning the Euro top scorer title twice, most recently in the previous Euro Cup. Now, Ronaldo must forget the disappointment and focus on the match against Slovenia and Portugal in the round of 16 of Euro 2024 at 2 am on July 2.
