🚨Thierry Henry on Portugal’s elimination from the FIFA World Cup:
🗣️ “I’m going to say something that a lot of Portuguese supporters probably don’t want to hear.
This Portugal team has massively underperformed.
Not because they lacked talent, but because too many of their biggest players never reached the level everyone expected.
Bruno Fernandes has been dreadful by his own standards throughout this World Cup. The creativity, the leadership, the decisive moments we’ve seen for years simply weren’t there. Then you look at Vitinha and João Neves—fresh from winning the Champions League with PSG. Two midfielders who dominated Europe. Yet in this tournament, they’ve been almost invisible. Missing in action when Portugal needed control, composure and personality.
And then there is Cristiano Ronaldo.
People will blame him because that’s the easy thing to do.
I won’t.
Because if you decide to start Cristiano, then you have to build situations that suit him. Instead, Portugal kept circulating possession without purpose. They had one of the greatest penalty-box finishers football has ever seen, yet they hardly gave him the service he lives on. That’s not on Ronaldo. That’s on the team around him.
Spain deserve enormous credit.
They played with a clear identity from the first minute until the last. Every player knew his role. Every movement had purpose. Portugal, on the other hand, looked like eleven talented footballers trying to solve the game individually rather than collectively.
That’s why Spain are still in this World Cup.
And that’s why Portugal are going home.
Not because they had worse players…
But because they never played like a better team.”
Cristiano se desmarca, se queda solo y acaba desesperado viendo el pase atrás número 7265.
El medio centro de Portugal es de lo peor que han visto mis ojos.
🚨🎙️ Paul scholes on Portugal's performances with Cristiano Ronaldo:
"Watching Portugal, I never got the feeling that the players were willing to fight for Cristiano Ronaldo. You could see it in their body language. Too often, it felt like they left him isolated, and when things went wrong, it was easy for the criticism to fall on him instead of the team's overall performance.
Cristiano is a striker. You have to play to his strengths. Put quality crosses into the box, make runs into the penalty area, combine with him in dangerous positions. Instead, they kept playing hopeful long balls, rarely attacked the box, and hardly created the type of chances that have defined Ronaldo's career.
He is not at that young age, so you mange him, that's what Argentina has been doing all this tournament, and Messi is giving them results.
This was a great opportunity for Portugal to challenge for the World Cup, but it never looked like everyone was pulling in the same direction. Football is a team game, and your biggest players need the support of the players around them. I didn't see enough of that.
People also seem to forget what Cristiano Ronaldo has done for Portugal. He helped change the history of football in that country, inspired a generation, and put Portugal among the world's elite. Whether you're a young player or an experienced one, you have to respect that legacy.
No matter how talented this current squad is, very few players will ever reach the level Cristiano reached in football. That's why you support a player of his stature, especially on the biggest stage. Unfortunately, throughout this tournament, it often felt like the team never truly played to bring the best out of him, and that was a huge disappointment."
🚨 Bruno Fernandes One-Season Wonder Letting Ronaldo Down:
🗣Jose Mourinho
“The Portuguese national team has a recurring problem with choking in big moments, and Bruno Fernandes is often at the heart of it. There were several clear opportunities to pass to Ronaldo, but he chose to go alone. If this were at Manchester United, those passes would have come without hesitation.
Bruno simply doesn’t strike me as a true team player. He seems more like a lucky one-season wonder who’s enjoying the spotlight, rather than someone willing to put the team’s and especially Ronaldo’s success first. It’s genuinely painful to watch.”
🚨Sir Alex Ferguson on Cristiano Ronaldo:
🗣️ “I hear people saying Cristiano needed to win the World Cup to complete his career. I don’t agree with that. Cristiano Ronaldo has spent more than two decades proving himself on every stage football has to offer. He’s won league titles in different countries, conquered Europe, broken records people thought would stand forever and completely transformed the mentality of the Portuguese national team. Before Cristiano, Portugal hoped to compete. With Cristiano, they expected to win. That’s the difference true greatness makes.
People forget that one tournament doesn’t define a footballer. If it did, we’d have to question the careers of many of the greatest players the game has ever seen. Cristiano doesn’t need a World Cup to validate what he’s has achieved because his legacy was secured a long time ago. The World Cup would simply have been another chapter. The real story is twenty years of relentless professionalism, unmatched ambition, sacrifice and an obsession with improving every single day. That’s what separates him from almost everyone else.
🇵🇹 Portugal had never won a single major trophy in its entire history… until a boy from Madeira, born on the 5th of February 1985, changed everything. When young players ask me what greatness looks like, I don’t point to medals first. I point to commitment. I point to sacrifice. I point to Cristiano Ronaldo. Because that’s what true greatness is.
¿Vitinha es el mejor mediocampista del mundo? ¿Bruno Fernandes es el actual MVP de la Premier League? ¿Ambos llegaron a la Copa del Mundo en su prime absoluto? Pues hay que decir las cosas como son: los dos son unos jugadorazos tremendos, pero en esta justa mundialista simplemente NO estuvieron a la altura.
Cristiano Ronaldo, con 41 años de edad, marcó 3 goles en el torneo y aún así se lleva casi todas las críticas. Sin embargo, los referentes que están en su mejor momento, los que supuestamente iban a liderar a esta generación, no aparecieron. Y esa es la realidad.
VITINHA Y BRUNO FERNANDES NO APARECIERON EN LA COPA DEL MUNDO.
🚨🎙️Wayne Rooney on Bruno Fernandes not crossing the ball to Cristiano Ronaldo: 🇵🇹
"If you're playing Cristiano Ronaldo, then you have to use him. In that situation, Bruno Fernandes had the chance to put the ball into the box, but instead they chose not to. That's the frustrating part.
Cristiano is still one of the biggest aerial threats in football, especially from crosses and set pieces. Don't ask him to receive the ball 30 yards from goal and create magic every time—that's not where he's most dangerous anymore.
His strength is inside the penalty area. Get the ball into him, let him attack it, and give him the service a striker like Cristiano Ronaldo thrives on. If you're going to start him, play to his strengths."
🚨🎙️Toni Kroos on Portugal's national team:
"First of all, congratulations to Portugal. If the objective was to move on from Cristiano Ronaldo, then you've achieved it."
"For years, people kept saying Cristiano was the reason Portugal struggled. Others claimed the team would be better without him and that there was no difference between Portugal with or without Cristiano. Fine—now the pressure is on them to prove it."
"From this moment, people will judge this team by what they achieve after Cristiano. If they truly believed he was holding them back, then they must go on to win the next European Championship and compete seriously for the next World Cups. That's how football works—you have to back up your words with results."
"We all know Portugal's history before Cristiano Ronaldo, and we all know what he helped the national team achieve during his era. He played a huge role in changing the mentality of Portuguese football and helped deliver the biggest trophies in the country's history."
"What disappointed me wasn't the result—it was the attitude. Throughout the tournament, it often looked like the unity and fight that made this team successful in the past just wasn't there. Everyone watching could see that."
"Now there's no more debate about Cristiano. The spotlight is fully on this generation of players. They'll be judged by what they win from here on, not by what they say. Football always remembers trophies, not excuses."
"Paredes es un jugador FUNDAMENTAL.
Estando él en la cancha, el equipo gira de otra manera. Con Alexis (Mac Allister) el equipo juega bien y lo ha hecho magnifícamente para no ser su posición.
Pero el 5 en la mayoría de los partidos ha sido Leandro. Si no hubiera venido lesionado al Mundial, habría sido titular.
Cuando la pelota pasa por él se distribuye bien. Encontramos jugadores a otras alturas con un pase mucho más vertical".
Lionel Scaloni sobre Leandro Paredes. 🇦🇷🗣️
AVISEN SI BOCA MOLESTA.
Enrique Cáceres, es el ex árbitro paraguayo que maneja la comisión de árbitros de la Conmebol. Desde que asumió (reemplazando a Wilson Seneme, Mariano Closs siempre lo mencionaba en sus relatos con el “Seneme”) en abril del 2022 a Boca Juniors lo han perjudicando árbitros y VAR sistemáticamente:
-2022 con Atlético Mineiro en los octavos de final. En la ida, gol anulado a Briasco, y en la vuelta posición adelantada de González, milimétrica, en el gol de Weigandt (Esteban Ostojich fue el árbitro).
-2023 con Fluminense en la final (Wilmar Roldán fue el árbitro) falta al colo Barco previa, en el gol de Kenedy.
-2024 en la Sudamericana con Fortaleza -penal claro a Cavani no cobrado- (Jesús Valenzuela fue el árbitro) y Cruzeiro -expulsión al comienzo del partido a Advíncula- (Wilmar Roldán fue el árbitro). Mismo juez que en un Fluminense - Mineiro sacó solo Amarilla en una infracción idéntica a la del peruano en Belo Horizonte.
-2025 no la jugó, quedando eliminado en la fase 2.
-2026 con Cruzeiro en Brasil, expulsión de Bareiro (Esteban Ostojich). Anoche mano penal en el último minuto, sin revisar, y gol lícito de Merentiel, anulado por mano de Delgado “sin intención” como en el gol convalidado a Cruzeiro de Fagner.
Son hechos que sucedieron y que preocupan mucho. Por todo esto, el hincha de Boca Juniors canta siempre “La Conmebol, La Conmebol se va a la…”.
Dato no menor, se repitieron los árbitros en partidos muy polémicos, con jugadas que perjudicaron a Boca Juniors ante clubes brasileños.
@novaro__ La diferencia amigo mio es que Boca ganó 4 títulos en Brasil y River ninguno, que Boca ganó 7 Finales vs Brasileros y River 2, que Boca eliminó 26 veces a Brasileros y River 16 y que Boca esta +9 en el historial vs Brasileros y River -10.
Todo el periodismo coincide:
"lo empuja por la espalda, es PENAL..!"
Acá algunos ejemplos donde el periodismo no dijo nada, o simplemente hizo silencio:
- Pinola a E. Más (+ otro a Villa) semifinal Copa 2019
- Martínez a Merentiel
- G. Pirez vs Platense
- P. Díaz vs AAAJ