In an interview with Portuguese football website zerozero, Portugal coach Roberto Martínez assessed the performance of the Seleção at Euro 2024, answered questions about his use of captain Cristiano Ronaldo, and talked about several individuals in an around the squad.
The Spaniard stated that Portugal’s goal is to win the 2026 World Cup and cites the approach adopted against France in the quarter-finals of the European Championship to explain that the Seleção need not fear any team.
How do you rate Portugal’s performance at Euro 2024?
“It’s difficult to give an overall assessment. We have to assess what we can control and also what we can’t, such as our opponents, injuries, etc. The goal was to play seven matches, so the final appraisal is not positive.
“The players’ attitude was incredible, the support from our fans was incredible. I think we gave our full commitment, which made me proud. We should have scored five more goals in our games. We created the chances and the statistics prove it. Portugal was the nation that had the most ball possession, the most possession in the final third. We showed verticality and intention. We tried everything to score. Our finishing wasn’t at the level we expected.”
World Cup ambition and Euro 2024 display against France?
“We are working towards winning the World Cup. That’s our supreme objective. To do so we have to go toe to toe against teams like France from the first minute. We were excellent without the ball and we kept a clean sheet. We were solid apart from ten minutes after Dembélé came on, when he had some space, but we managed to adjust.
“I liked the way we started extra time. In the first half I think we played our best football of the tournament: high quality with the ball against a high-level opponent. We can play like that against any team. Being tactically flexible but with firm ideas.”
Cristiano Ronaldo’s minutes?
“It makes sense to ask this question. Age in tournaments is not important. I think being older actually helps. We saw that with Pepe, who played at a superlative level. The work of the medical team is very important. We monitored Cristiano’s performance through statistics, which show he was well managed, well used. I have confidential information to back this up.”
Were you happy with Cristiano Ronaldo’s performance?
“When we talk about Cristiano, we are talking about a striker who scores goals. But our striker is much more than this. I was happy with his discipline. As we don’t hit the ball long, but advance up the pitch with shorter passes, to arrive in the final third with four/five players, we need a striker with a lot of discipline as regards his positioning. Cristiano did this very well.
“He opened up spaces, reacted to losing the ball, and I think the lack of goals from Cristiano was shared in general around the team. We lacked goals from players in the box, from Rafael Leão, Bruno Fernandes and Bernardo Silva, for example. What Ronaldo did as a striker was what we expected from him. Overall he worked very well.”
João Félix?
“He’s a player at the start of his career; he’s got plenty of years ahead of him. I really liked the way João Félix showed fight every day in the training sessions. He’s got high-level technical ability.
“The penalty miss? Only players that take them can miss them. You can’t judge João Félix’s tournament on one incident. It was me who decided he would take the penalty, and he was ready. We had worked on penalties in training and João, with his technical quality, is a player we had a lot of faith in. We have three players with huge experience at taking penalties – Cris, Bruno and Bernardo – then the decision is more open. Missing penalties is part of the game.”
Pote?
“Pote was in the preliminary squad lists before the Euro, but in March 2024 he got injured and couldn’t show what he could offer us. We continue to track him closely. He’s started the season very well and naturally the door to the Seleção is open.
“I don’t see him as part of our two-man midfield, or a striker, but rather as a player to occupy a position between the lines. He’s strong at attacking the opposition goal, is a good finisher and he’s an intelligent player who can play a pass at the right moment. He can play from the right or left, although I think he produces more coming from the left. But we have to take into account that we other players who can occupy these areas like João Félix, Bernardo Silva, Bruno Fernandes, Vitinha.”
João Neves’ move to PSG?
I’d like to know if PSG saw our pre-tournament friendly against Finland [laughter] because Neves and Vitinha linked up superbly. They are both short players, but have a great capacity to switch the play or push the team forward. I saw that João really liked playing with Vitinha and Vitinha really liked playing with João. There was very strong chemistry between the two of them. PSG are a top team and have a coach who likes to play technical football and have his players have possession of the ball.
[translated and abridged version by Tom Kundert of the interview conducted by Luís Rocha Rodrigues and Pedro Jorge da Cunha published on zerozero on Thursday 22 August 2024]
