DIDI HAMANN SAYS 'EMBARRASSING' CRISTIANO RONALDO SHOULD HAVE BEEN TAKEN OFF FOR CRYING

Didi Hamann has blasted Cristiano Ronaldo for his ’embarrassing’ show of emotion during Portugal’s dramatic win over Slovenia.

On a night of high drama, Roberto Martinez’s side ultimately progressed to the quarter finals of Euro 2024 where they will meet France on Friday night.

Portugal’s passage to the last eight was anything but straightforward, however, with their 39-year-old talisman enduring a dramatic rollercoaster of an evening.

The former Real Madrid and Manchester United superstar missed a succession of chances to give his side the lead and was criticised for monopolising and wasting a number of free kicks.

Ronaldo’s frustration became ever more apparent with each wild attempt to break his goalscoring duck at these European Championships and his emotions finally boiled over during extra-time.

Presented with the opportunity to win the game with a penalty, Ronaldo was denied his moment of glory by a sensational save from Slovenia captain Jan Oblak.

Ronaldo burst into tears following his miss and had to be consoled by his teammates during the interval during extra time.

Mercifully, the former Ballon d’Or winner regained his composure during the subsequent shootout, scoring his side’s first spot kick which put them on their way to victory.

Former Liverpool star Hamann believes Ronaldo shouldn’t have been on the pitch with a chance to earn himself a reprieve and insists his presence last night hindered rather than helped his nation.

‘Thirty-nine-year-old plays 120 minutes, he misses a penalty and I’ve got to say, I bought into all that “Ronaldo has turned into a team player because he needs the team more than he used to”. I bought into that nonsense as well, but I think he showed his true colours again tonight,’ Hamann said.

‘Missing the penalty, he starts crying on the pitch, he starts crying at half-time in extra-time. And I’m thinking “it’s all about you”.

‘There’s a squad of 26 players, there’s 20 staff, there’s 30 or 40,000 fans in there, it’s not about you.

‘You try to be mutual, but I was cheering Slovenia on because I thought the reaction was embarrassing, I thought it was out of order.

‘I’ve never seen anything like it, because once you show emotions, once you get emotional, it’s the end of it.

‘So that was the point where the manager had to say, “you’ve got to come off because you’re not in the right frame of mind to carry on playing”.

‘Credit to him he took the first penalty and he took it well, it was a very good penalty, but as I said I bought into all that “Ronaldo’s turned into a team player”, it’s absolute nonsense.

‘All he thinks about is himself.

‘He scores the penalty and apologises to the fans, he doesn’t need to apologise. He will start the next game but I can’t see any other outcome than a France win.’

2024-07-02T09:20:24Z dg43tfdfdgfd