Former Manchester City boss Stuart Pearce believes the Portuguese players are not passing to Cristiano Ronaldo and has cited one ‘quite strange’ example.
Portugal are one of the favourites for the 2024 European Championships in Germany and kicked off their campaign with a 2-1 victory over Czech Republic.
Roberto Martinez’s side did fall behind in the game but an own goal and a very late Francisio Conceicao goal won Portugal the game in dramatic fashion.
Former Manchester United and Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo led the line for Portugal but the current Al-Nassr forward seemed to struggle during the game and Stuart Pearce believes his international teammates are not passing to him.
Pearce makes Bernardo Silva claim
Speaking on talkSPORT’s commentary, the former Nottingham Forest left-back was perplexed as to why the Portuguese players were seemingly ignoring the forward.
“This might sound ridiculous, but [maybe] they don’t trust Ronaldo enough to keep supplying him with the ball, that type of thing.”
When asked by Adrian Durham to explain what he meant further, Pearce said: “There’s been times in the games where he’s shown to feet and they’ve not popped the ball into his feet.
“There was one with Bernardo Silva, it was one of these rogue passes [by Czech Republic] that got cut out.
“Bernardo Silva had it in the centre circle, Ronaldo peeled off in an inside-right position.
“I’m thinking, ‘If this was ten years ago, you slide it in front of him and you know full well he’s going to get there and score.’ He [Silva] denied the pass, and I found that quite strange.”
Ronaldo’s impact
The Portuguese forward is certainly not the player that he was 10 years ago but it does seem strange that his international teammates would refuse a pass to the striker.
Ronaldo is, after all, the highest goalscorer in the competition with 14 goals and there is every chance that this could be his last tournament.
Prior to this tournament, he has scored in each of his first five European Championship outings and was the Golden Boot winner at Euro 2020.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
