Tony Cascarino believes Portugal manager Roberto Martinez hindered the nation by ‘indulging’ in Cristiano Ronaldo.
The 39-year-old had a Euro 2024 to forget as France knocked the Portuguese out on penalties in the quarter-finals on Friday.
Ronaldo ended the tournament with no goals from 23 shots – the most attempts of any player in the competition.
He currently top another chart: minutes played by outfield players – despite Portugal having strikers Diogo Jota and Goncalo Ramos at their disposal.
Many believe the five-time Ballon d’Or winner was picked on sentiment, having spent most of the last two seasons playing in the Saudi Pro League.
Indeed, ex-Portugal boss Fernando Santos caused a media storm by dropping Ronaldo during the 2022 World Cup.
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And ex-Republic of Ireland striker Cascarino suggests Martinez held Portugal back by refusing to withdraw the nation’s most iconic player of all time.
Cascarino told talkSPORT: “How can you justify it? How does Martinez as a coach, manager, justify keeping him on?
“He had nothing to say in that game. And you can say previous games, he backed him and talked very highly of what a great professional he was.
“But you’re watching that game last night, and if he was a young lad, he’d have been hauled off at half time.”
Cascarino added: “You’ve been beaten by a French team, okay, and it’s gone to penalties.
“They couldn’t have played as poorly as they did last night, the French. They were really disappointing again. And all their top players didn’t turn up.
“No one was that exciting. Dembele came on, and probably Saliba did as well as anybody. Even Kante didn’t have his best game.
“And they’ve knocked you out. I think as the days roll on, it will be a huge disappointment.
“And I’m afraid he’s played a part in the reason why they haven’t got past France, the manager, because he indulged something that was hurting his team.”
Meanwhile, Ronaldo was given a 2/10 in Adrian Durham’s ‘winners and losers’.
The talkSPORT host fumed: “What’s actually happening here? Is this tournament part of Ronaldo’s testimonial programme?
“He has so many shots sooner or later one of them will get deflected in. His effort in the first half of extra time has just about landed in Lisbon.
“That was his 23rd shot of the tournament – 0 goals. Makes Conor Gallagher look like Lionel Messi.”
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