‘Brutal experience’ but does Cristiano Ronaldo defend enough to start? Portugal boss Roberto Martinez mulling over options ahead of Euro 2024

With Euro 2024 fast approaching, one of the pre-tournament favourites are mulling over what role their talismanic No.7 will play. Ronaldo may be one of the best to have ever graced a football field, but he is now 39 years of age and plying his club trade in the Saudi Pro League for Al-Nassr.

He has never been the most committed to defensive work either, despite often being required to press and close from the front, and that has led some to question whether he should be starting for his country at another major competition. Martinez has said of Ronaldo working for the greater good: “It is important for us to attack and defend with 11. Cristiano has brutal experience. There is no other with this experience. He is a player who knows very well how to use space in the area and is a special finisher, a special player. Cristiano's focus, reaction to loss and defensive positions were perfect during the games we played, the last 11 games. So for me, there are no doubts, there are no worries.”

Ronaldo is also facing questions of whether he can handle the demands of tournament football, where the games come thick and fast, but Martinez added on an evergreen frontman that hit 50 goals across the 2023-24 campaign: “What happens with European and world tournaments that we need to evaluate every day, all games have different incidences. Cris had 51 games last season and had no problems playing all the games, he played many competitions, but the dates to club level are not the same as at the national team level. I think there is no problem, but we evaluate this in real-time and during the tournament.”

Portugal will be in friendly action against the Republic of Ireland on Tuesday, as they complete their European Championship preparations, while competitive action will resume on June 18 when facing Czechia.