Cristiano Ronaldo's Fitness Again Concerning Portugal, 2 Years On

Much might have changed between Lisbon in 2014 and Milan two years later, but when the final blow was delivered, the symmetry was crystal clear.

Cristiano Ronaldo stepped up to score from the penalty spot and removed his shirt to celebrate the confirmation that the Champions League trophy would return to the Bernabeu with Real Madrid, at the expense of near-neighbours Atletico.

That, for Madridistas and fans back home in Portugal, was a welcome sight. It won’t, however, paper over the other close similarity between Ronaldo’s role in the finals of 2014 and 2016. In both years, the team talisman had been unusually quiet in the 120 minutes leading up to him placing the ball on the spot.

Both times, El Real had their happy ending regardless. Portugal may well worry, though, with increasing parallels between the shape in which he approached the 2014 World Cup and the nick he’s in now, with just a fortnight to go until the Selecao’s Euro 2016 opener against Iceland in Saint Etienne.

The fretting has already started to irritate national coach Fernando Santos, it seems, if his words to the media after Sunday night’s comfortable friendly win over Norway are anything to go by. "I don’t understand why we speak so little about the game and we always speak about Cristiano Ronaldo," the coach said, as reported here by O Jogo.

Santos went on, of course, to answer his own question, describing his captain as "a fundamental piece of this team" and as "the best player in the world."

Portugal had swept a pretty average Norway team aside with ease, and the locums had done their jobs. Ricardo Quaresma, Ronaldo’s former Sporting Clube de Portugal stablemate, had scored one and laid on another for Eder, while the coveted Raphael Guerreiro had a goal of his own direct from a free-kick that he took in the skipper’s absence.

The coach knows, though, that stiffer tests are to come, with Iceland followed by a meeting with dark horses Austria, who were hugely impressive in qualification. So that’s why he spoke about the need to "continue to believe that we can win" should Ronaldo be absent at any stage.

There appears to be no genuine panic, either inside or outside the camp, just yet. Still, Ronaldo’s performance was far enough from his imperious best to demolish his club coach Zinedine Zidane’s pre-match claim that his attacking spearhead was "100 per cent" (as reported here by Sky Sports).

This, combined with the player’s own post-match comments that he was "very tired" (relayed here by Sid Lowe for the Guardian) and just needed a rest at least require acknowledgment. It takes something for Ronaldo to let his mask of invincibility slip even half an inch, so it was an admission worth noting.  

Paulo Duarte/Associated Press/Associated Press

The recall of the Euroderbi of 2014, and the warning it provided for Portugal’s struggles in Brazil, sharpen the sense that all is not quite right. The rhetoric around Ronaldo now is eerily reminiscent of then. No worries, no drama, come the messages.

The questions about his physical state will keep on coming. When he arrived in Brazil with Paulo Bento’s squad two years ago, Ronaldo flippantly batted them away with a grin and a wink. "Am I 100 percent fit?" he says, repeating a journalist’s question as he rushes through one arrival area with his team-mates in an exchange shown in the film Ronaldo, released this year. "99," he replies, as the suggestion of a smirk crosses his face.

That, we now know, was not simply an overestimate but something he knew to be incorrect. "I wasn’t fit," Ronaldo says later in the film, "but my team needed me. I would feel better if we had three or four Cristiano Ronaldos, but we don’t."

Even though plenty will regard this as a familiar arrogance, it’s difficult to argue with if you’re honest—and it’s hard to criticise his decision to grit his teeth and get on with it, but my goodness, it was painful to watch. For those used to seeing Ronaldo at close quarters, the diminished state of his powers was stark.

Ronaldo’s intensity is what makes you either love him or hate him. It’s what has separated him from Quaresma for most of the latter’s career, for example, with plenty of Portuguese believing that the Besiktas winger has at least the same amount of natural talent as his fellow Alvalade graduate.

That obsessive nature is as clear in training as it is in matches. There is no 95 percent mode. Ronaldo does everything at full tilt, with total commitment. When the Portugal squad played their first mini-practice match amongst themselves on the main pitch behind their hotel in Opalenica, in rural Poland, after arriving for the last Euros four years ago, the captain hared around the pitch and put in a big tackle on the aforementioned Quaresma after a few minutes.

Ronaldo got to his feet and rubbed the back of his thigh, reminding us of the fragility of it all and no doubt placing Bento’s heart firmly in his mouth. That’s Ronaldo all over, though; unable to deny his nature, even though, at moments like that one, the coaching staff would rather he took it easy to avoid accidents.

Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press

He was unable to muster anywhere near that fettle in Brazil. Suffering with his thigh and his knee, most of the gathered media struggled to tear the gaze from that infamous flesh-coloured strapping around his left knee that he wore every day as he jogged out in Campinas.

The intensity never mounted much from there. A bit of light running and some yoga stretches were about as far as a clearly hobbled Ronaldo got. In Portugal’s three group matches, he pushed himself as far as he could—and he battled through plain agony to nearly pull off the impossible in the last match with Ghana—but the fuel simply wasn’t in the tank.

A repeat this time would be tough to bear, a prospect brought up from late April when Portuguese media (including Record) suggested Ronaldo would need a 20-day break from competition and training.

As we said, alarm should be tempered. Ronaldo was hardly the only player to wilt in the heat of San Siro on Saturday. If anything, he looked short of sharpness rather struggling with a particular complaint, fading after ploughing through a ton of defensive work in support of Marcelo, in the first half in particular.

The proof, though, will probably only arrive once we’re underway at Stade Geoffroy-Guichard. Portugal has every right to bite its nails in the meantime.