For a moment, Cristiano Ronaldo seemed on the verge of tears. And then suddenly, no, he was on the verge of tears. The floodgates had opened and he was crying. In front of a capacity crowd in Frankfurt and a huge global television audience, the most famous athlete on the planet was in a flood of tears.
And there were still games to be won and qualification for the Euro 2024 quarter-finals to be confirmed.
It was an incredible thing to witness. The Portugal captain had endured another frustrating evening, was still chasing his first goal of the tournament, and now he had the chance to break Slovenia’s resistance, and saw goalkeeper Jan Oblak brilliantly save the penalty. All the tension and anguish that had been building up inside him suddenly boiled over.
Ronaldo has missed penalties before, sometimes in very stressful situations. He has cried on the pitch before. Tears of sadness, tears of joy. But this time it was different. Because the game wasn’t over. At 39, admitting that he was playing in his last European Championship, he wasn’t crying because he was losing, but because his strength was fading. It was like the tears of a matinee idol who realizes that he is facing the final act.
There was a time when he looked so vulnerable, so wrong, so… human. When the Portuguese players gathered in the first half of added time, they looked up and saw a man who looked broken. One by one, they tried to pick him up. His former Manchester United teammates Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot grabbed him, as if to remind him who he was and still is. Fulham midfielder Joao Palinha and Manchester City defender Ruben Dias did the same.
Ronaldo comforts Dalot as he sheds tears after the end of the first half of extra time (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
It was notable that Portugal manager Roberto Martinez kept him out in that situation. Ronaldo looked tired. He barely touched the ball for the remainder of added time, and Slovenia looked more likely to win for the first time all evening.
It went to a penalty shootout. What if Ronaldo misses again?
He didn’t. This time he fired to the opposite side, to Oblak’s right, and looked incredibly relieved when the net bounced out. It took courage, but there was nothing showy about his reaction. It was not the time for his trademark celebration. Instead, he put his hands together and apologized to the Portuguese supporters.
Within three minutes, the Portuguese players and supporters were celebrating their victory. Goalkeeper Diogo Costa was the hero, saving all three Slovenian kicks, while Ronaldo, Bruno Fernandes and Bernardo Silva scored. Costa also made a crucial save late in extra time to deny Slovenian striker Benjamin Cesco, but it was a great performance. A relieved Ronaldo hugged him and thanked him.
“At the beginning there was sadness, at the end there was joy,” the five-time Ballon d’Or winner told Portuguese TV station RTP afterwards. “That’s what football brings: moments that you can’t explain, from the eighth minute to the 80th minute. That’s what happened today. Did I have a chance to give the team the lead? I couldn’t.”
Ronaldo celebrates and apologizes after scoring a goal in a penalty shootout (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
He has referred to his penalty record throughout the season. “I haven’t made a mistake,” he said. But he will be keenly aware that there is more to Euro 2024 than just penalties. Excluding penalty shoot-outs (as the record book always does), he has yet to score in four appearances in the tournament. Excluding a penalty miss against Ghana in Portugal’s opening game of the 2022 World Cup, he has not scored in eight appearances in a major tournament.
Ronaldo scored 50 goals in 51 games for Al Nassr in all competitions last season. He also scored 10 goals in nine games in Euro 2024 qualifying, half of which came against Luxembourg and Liechtenstein. He is the top international scorer in men’s football with a ridiculous 130 goals in 211 games. However, the highest-ranking teams he has scored against in the last three years are Switzerland (19th), Qatar (35th), Slovakia (45th) and the Republic of Ireland (60th).
But he has had too many shots. Too many shots – 20 so far in this tournament, at least seven more than any other player. Too many promising attacks and dangerous free kicks sacrificed on the altar of self-gratification. There was one free kick against Slovenia, and even in a stadium full of ardent Ronaldo fans, he was the only one who thought he would score. Sure enough, his shot flew wide of the post.
And there are shots he can’t fire, because while his physique still looks powerful, his acceleration, pace and power are no longer what they used to be. In the first half, Bernardo Silva cut inside from the right wing and fired the most delightful cross at the far post. Ronaldo leapt but couldn’t reach it, and not for the first time in the tournament, you wonder if he missed such an opportunity in his prime.
But his prime is long gone now, longer than he would like to imagine. He won his last Ballon d’Or in 2017, and even at 32, he is a far more economical player than the unstoppable, unstoppable force he was in his mid- to late-20s.
Ronaldo beats Jan Oblak with a penalty kick in the shootout (Harriet Lander – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)
Some will say this tournament is too far for him, but the same was said at the Qatar World Cup 18 months ago. He failed to make much of an impact and eventually lost his place to Gonzalo Ramos. Now it feels like two tournaments too far. Or maybe it’s two tournaments where Ronaldo could be better used as an option. Sometimes it’s about coming on as a substitute and swapping places with Ramos or Diogo Jota, not a fixed point where everything has to revolve around.
It was almost surprising to hear Ronaldo describe this as his last European Championship in the mixed area after the match. “But I’m not emotional about it,” he said. “I’m moved by everything that football means. The passion for the game, the passion for seeing my supporters and my family, the love people give me.
“It’s not about leaving football. What else can I do, what else can I win? It’s not about getting one point more or one point less. Making people happy is what motivates me the most.”
What else could he do and what could he win? It wasn’t like Ronaldo, especially given what we saw earlier in the evening. Of course, he’s right. His legacy and place as one of the game’s immortals was long ago secured. But his reaction to missing that penalty was not that of someone who feels immune to the pressure of having to keep proving himself.
“He is an example to us,” Martinez said later. “The feeling (after missing the penalty) was incredible. When you think about his career and everything he has achieved, you don’t have to worry about that. After missing the penalty, he was the first penalty taker (in the shootout). I was sure he had to step up and show us the way to victory. The way he reacted was an example and we are very proud.”
It’s a beautiful statement, but Martinez has a big decision to make ahead of Portugal’s quarter-final clash with France in Hamburg on Friday.
There have been many occasions over the years when Ronaldo has saved his team from the brink, but on Monday night he looked defeated not only by Oblak’s penalty save but by the only thing that ultimately catches up to everyone else: time.
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(Above photo: Alex Grimm/Getty Images)
