vivster said:
I think it's fine that Portugal won, the problem is perception. I can't stand when people relate the placement in a tournament with the actual strength of the team. Silly things like if you reach the quarterfinals you are one of the 8 best teams in Europe or that in the semis there are only the 4 best teams of Europe.
Portugal won, does that make them the best team in Europe? Hell no.
Also I can't subscribe to the thought that the exclusion of Ronaldo did significantly weaken the team. Ronaldo is a great player who is able to score in a lot of situations, but so are other forwards. He doesn't do a lot for team cohesion, he barely is a nice extra that can score as a joker. He's basically useless in defense and midfield. I wasn't worried in the least when he went out. People love to forget that there are actually some really decent players in the team, players who easily fit in any high class club. If Portugal is at 100% with Ronaldo, I'd say they're about at 95% without him. Portugal as a team isn't good enough to use him at his full poptential anyway so they might as well use any other half decent player in that position.
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Agree with everything. The only thing that Portugal noticeably lost with Ronaldo out was their aerial threat, but they did gain a few things in return like dribbling and defensive contributions since Quarisma is better at those things.
