Dietmar Hamann has slammed Cristiano Ronaldo for his show-boating for Portugal in their Euro 2020 defeat to Germany.
The Juventus forward showed his quality with a brilliant no-look flicked pass that confused Antonio Rudiger, but it didn’t amount to much in the end as Germany came from behind to win the game 4-2.
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Ronaldo’s skill came when his side were 1-0 up, but it was perhaps a bit early to be showing off like that, with Hamann clearly unimpressed and insisting the 36-year-old looks like a fool now.
The pundit also feels the Germany players will have noticed that lack of respect from Ronaldo, suggesting it might even have spurred them on to come back and win the game.
“I think it’s nonsense,” Hamann told RTE, as quoted by the Metro. “He flicks the ball over, pretends he is going to catch it and backheels it across, and looks away
“Of course it is [amazing] and we know he can do that… I think, in a way he’s belittling the opposition.
“This is at 1-0 and I’m sitting here while you all rave about it. Yes, he is the best, with Messi… He looks a fool now. This is 1-0. He does look the fool.
“If you ask the German players, they’ll tell you now what they thought of it. They would have noticed that.
“I tell you now, all of them will say it may have given us an extra bit of whatever to change things.
“What is he trying to achieve? Maybe this [Germany comeback] is where it all started.”
In fairness to Ronaldo, he played a good pass and it’s not against the rules to try a cheeky bit of skill, even if you’re only 1-0 up.
The former Real Madrid man will surely feel he was just doing his bit for the team, as he’s put in the side to provide them with quality like that in the final third.
If Ronaldo had been faffing about in front of an open goal, wasting a genuine opportunity to score, then that would be another story, but Hamann’s reaction to this piece of skill seems a little over the top.