Former Czech Republic player points to Cristiano Ronaldo as Portugal's weakness

The Czech Republic and Portugal face each other today in the group stage of Euro 2024. One of the Czech Republic's historic players, Karel Poborsky, Euro runner-up in 1996, said that currently Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the weakest links in the Portuguese team. He said he recognizes Cristiano's greatness and achievements, but that today he is not the same and the Czech Republic can take advantage of that.

Cristiano is no longer the same

“I've been saying for a long time that Cristiano Ronaldo will be one of Portugal's weakest links. Fans of both teams will go crazy for him, but at his age, he's not as good at building the game and pressing as his younger teammates. I prefer him to be a starter”declared Poborsky to the Czech news agency “CTK”.

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_{Karel Poborsky playing the game between the legends of Manchester United and Liverpool in 2022 (photo: reproduction/ Getty Images Embed/ John Peters)}

Karel Poborsky also recalled the turbulent moment that Cristiano Ronaldo went through during the World Cup, when Cristiano fell out with the former coach of the Portuguese national team, Fernando Santos, and ended up going to the bench: “I take my hat off for what Cristiano Ronaldo did, thanks to his enormous self-confidence. But you can't stop your age, you're 39 years old. We don’t know how he relates to Roberto Martínez, but there was already this problem with his predecessor, Fernando Santos, at the World Cup in Qatar.”

Poborsky already knows Portugal from before

Coincidentally, when the Czech Republic finished runners-up in the Euros in 1996, losing to Germany in the final, Karel Poborsky himself scored the winning goal against Portugal in the quarter-finals of the competition.

Portugal and the Czech Republic face each other today at 4pm, Brasília time. The game takes place at the Red Bull Arena, in Leipzig, Germany, and is part of group F of Euro 2024, a group that also includes Turkey and Georgia.

Featured photo: Cristiano Ronaldo in one of the Portuguese team's training sessions before their Euro debut (reproduction/ Instagram/ @cristiano)