0-1. In the Iberian derby, Spain snatched a stoppage-time winner to knock Portugal out — and brought the curtain down on Cristiano Ronaldo’s final World Cup dance.
Cristiano Ronaldo is without question one of the greatest stars of the last era, one of the few who can be mentioned in the same breath as Messi. So why has his World Cup journey always failed to end with the last laugh?
Six World Cups, and Only This One Penalty in the Knockouts
Open up his World Cup history and you’ll find the record isn’t pretty: across six World Cups, the only goal he has ever scored in the knockout stage is this tournament’s penalty. In every other knockout appearance, he has never found the net.
Before 2022, you could blame it on Portugal simply not being strong enough. In 2022, you could point to his limited minutes. But this time, his teammates were hailed as a golden midfield, with a world-class player in nearly every position — and still, he could only score from the spot.
Plenty of people online say he’s dragging the team down: always standing on the offside line, never arriving in the right place at the right time. You could even hear commentators sigh during the broadcast, “That was a good ball played in, but there was just nobody in that position.” But is it really that simple?
Yes, He’s Aged — but That’s Not the Whole Answer
It’s true, Cristiano Ronaldo is old. With his pace and stamina no longer what they were, it’s harder for him to peel off into space or produce the kind of improbable goals that kill a game off. Always more of a finisher, he can’t link up play the way Messi does — so when he doesn’t find space and the ball doesn’t reach his feet, you even get the embarrassing stat line of a negative carry distance.
But this Portugal’s problem is perhaps not just that Cristiano Ronaldo can’t find space. It’s the fit of the very midfielders whose every issue was papered over by the “golden midfield” label.
The Real Disease: A Golden Midfield, Every Piece Out of Position
The pairing of Vitinha and João Neves is fine — they’ve enjoyed huge success at club level. The problem is that once you add Bruno Fernandes and Bernardo Silva on top of that base, it all starts to look out of joint.
Bruno Fernandes is the Premier League’s assist king, a specialist at the first-time through ball that slices open a defense. But at Portugal, the ball mostly sits at Vitinha’s feet, and he never gets to hold it and unlock his creativity; the head coach hands him more of a runner’s role, arriving behind Cristiano Ronaldo — which simply isn’t his strength. And Bernardo Silva, saddled with the defensive work Ronaldo can no longer handle in his older years, struggles to show off his dribbling and creativity too.
In all fairness, Cristiano Ronaldo this time can no longer devour defenders or stretch the pitch the way he did at his peak — but it’s not as if he never got free or created a single chance either. It’s Portugal’s midfield misfit that stripped these “golden midfield” stars of the fluency and confidence they show at their clubs. They no longer dared to play the bold pass, only the conservative square ball or the pass back. That is the true reason Portugal’s attack was so stodgy.
Would Mbappé or Haaland Have Fixed It? The Problem Is the Coach
Now, all of this is indeed connected to Cristiano Ronaldo — some say swap in Mbappé or Haaland and they’d have been scoring for fun. But isn’t that obvious? Today’s Haaland and Mbappé are simply better players than Cristiano Ronaldo — except they’re not in your country!
The only other option you have besides Cristiano Ronaldo is Gonçalo Ramos. Would he be better than Cristiano Ronaldo? Not necessarily. Because, as I said above, by the later knockout rounds this Portugal midfield had already played themselves out of confidence. Drop in any A-list striker other than Mbappé or Haaland (maybe throw in Harry Kane) and it still wouldn’t save this Portugal.
Because the one who really has to shoulder the most blame is the coach. He failed to properly bring out each golden midfielder’s individual traits, instead making them each carry tasks they may not be suited for — facing the World Cup’s challenge with their weaknesses rather than their strengths. Under those conditions, even scraping through to the quarterfinals doesn’t make you a title-level team.
So rather than going on about what Cristiano Ronaldo did or didn’t do, if Portugal want to go further in the future, the first thing they need is an answer to their midfield fit.