It’s been a funny old few weeks for Portugal.
Despite not managing to win a single game in 90 minutes at Euro 2016, they’re somehow just a game away from the final.
Added to that, their main man Cristiano Ronaldo has been – by his own exceptionally high standards at least – pretty off colour for the majority of the tournament.
After their opening match with Iceland, he generated plenty of negative headlines for criticising Lars Lagerbach’s side’s “small mentality”. He followed this by missing a penalty against Austria and lobbing a reporter’s microphone into a lake ahead of their final group game with Hungary.
With many reports concentrating on the Real Madrid star’s tantrums, lack of form and supposed selfishness, some might question why he’s been given the captain’s armband for his national side.
Having beaten Croatia with a late extra time goal in the last 16, Portugal needed penalties to defeat Poland in the quarter-finals. Ahead of the shootout, midfielder João Moutinho was reluctant to take one of the spot-kicks.
As the clip below shows, Ronaldo was having none of it – stepping in to demand the Monaco man take a penalty.
How Cristiano motivated and encouraged João Moutinho to take a penalty in the shootout vs Poland. Grande Capitão! pic.twitter.com/sAMVWPSIPa
— Jan Freðrik Hagen (@JanFHagen) July 4, 2016
Maybe people shouldn’t be too quick to question his leadership qualities.
If Portugal can negotiate their way past Wales this week, they’ll be in their first European Championships final since 2004, the year they hosted the tournament.
