# Ronaldo pays penalty



## Liamos (28 Jun 2012)

Anyone else find it very amusing to see Ronaldo, all set to take the glory by taking the 5th penalty for Portugal last night, see his plan backfire!

He really does have a very high opinion of himself.


----------



## Shawady (28 Jun 2012)

Strange one alright.
You would expect a team to put their strongest penalty takers up first to try get the scores up early.
I think he is actually Portugal's penalty taker.


----------



## Liamos (28 Jun 2012)

As the guys on RTE said, the most important thing in a penalty shootout is to get points on the board. 

Ronaldo put his ego above the interests of his team.


----------



## TarfHead (28 Jun 2012)

Cesc Fabregas opted to take #5 cos he believed it would be decisive. Today he's a hero. Why is Ronaldo judged to a different standard ?

Why did both teams send down defenders to take penalties ahead of attacking players ? Where were Navas & Busquets when Ramos & Piqué were stepping forward ?


----------



## Deiseblue (28 Jun 2012)

Liamos said:


> Anyone else find it very amusing to see Ronaldo, all set to take the glory by taking the 5th penalty for Portugal last night, see his plan backfire!
> 
> He really does have a very high opinion of himself.



Whereas it reflects well on Messi that he is so modest & attributes much of his success to his team mates Ronaldo is a different matter - however he correctly has a high opinion of himself - he is a wonderful player with a massive ego which unfortunately makes him difficult to like despite his undoubted world class talent.

I don't find any reason to doubt his assertion that his manager stated the order of players to take penalties


----------



## Liamos (28 Jun 2012)

Deiseblue said:


> Whereas it reflects well on Messi that he is so modest & attributes much of his success to his team mates Ronaldo is a different matter - however he correctly has a high opinion of himself - he is a wonderful player with a massive ego which unfortunately makes him difficult to like despite his undoubted world class talent.
> 
> I don't find any reason to doubt his assertion that his manager stated the order of players to take penalties


 
I agree he is a wonderful player with a massive ego. I like some of what he does and dislike other things about him.

I dont know who organised the order of the players for the penalty shootout, but my suspicion is that with his 'massive ego' it was Ronaldo.


----------



## Ceist Beag (28 Jun 2012)

It's ever the way with Ronaldo - love him or hate him, people talk about him. Personally I  believe that the coach made the call to put him fifth - hell if Ronaldo had his way he'd take all 5 penalties!! But I don't think it was fair they way Dunphy said he bottled it - the last penalty, if it got that far, would have been the biggest pressure of all, so there was no way he was copping out by being last. Sure Ronaldo has a massive ego, but so does Pele, so does Maradona, so what! He's a fantastic footballer and that's all that really matters.


----------



## TarfHead (28 Jun 2012)

Deiseblue said:


> however he correctly has a high opinion of himself - he is a wonderful player with a massive ego which unfortunately makes him difficult to like  ..


 
After the QF against the Czech Republic, he said something along the lines "_it was important that I scored .. _". My first reaction was "_Wow, how arrogant is THAT_". On reflection I decided he was dead right. It was inportant for Portugal that Ronaldo score, cos he if he can't provide goals, there's no-one else on the team that could be relied upon.

When Varela scored against Denmark, he was swamped by 9 of the other 10 outfield players. Guess who was the one  ? It's behaviour like that that has most people hoping for the worst for any team Ronaldo plays for.


----------



## MrMan (28 Jun 2012)

I would have expected it to go down to sudden death because all of the players on show are technically good. I would have a big ego if I was on his level in the sport, but he does his job for his team, and his job last night was to take the 5th penalty, it didn't come to pass.


----------



## bazermc (28 Jun 2012)

Is it going to be a bail out final Germany V Spain or Italy V Spain

What do people reckon, I think tonights match could also end in penalties!!!


----------



## michaelm (28 Jun 2012)

bazermc said:


> What do people reckon, I think tonights match could also end in penalties!!!


2-0 to the Germans against both Italy and Spain.


----------



## Boyd (28 Jun 2012)

Basically Ronaldo cant do everything, Portugal are fairly limited apart from him. He knows this, they know this and I know this.
If he went first he'd be castigated for taking the easy option with "no pressure", if he goes last he's only interested in the glory and in the end the manager probably gave the order anyway so its a moot point. He's just too easy to hate is the problem.


----------



## ajapale (28 Jun 2012)

michaelm said:


> 2-0 to the Germans against both Italy and Spain.


0-2 at half time.


----------



## notagardener (28 Jun 2012)

username123 said:


> Basically Ronaldo cant do everything, Portugal are fairly limited apart from him. He knows this, they know this and I know this.
> If he went first he'd be castigated for taking the easy option with "no pressure", if he goes last he's only interested in the glory and in the end the manager probably gave the order anyway so its a moot point. He's just too easy to hate is the problem.


 
1st penalty is definately not the easiest. In general it's a teams best dead ball kicker that takes a teams first penalty. Great for moral to get a score on the board. Gerard took England's, Alonso took Spain's, Balotelli took Italy's for example.No doubt he is a great player but considering he took every free kick they had in the opposition box, one would have expected their best dead ball kicker and leader to set them on their way. But hindsight is a great thing....


----------



## Leper (29 Jun 2012)

Poor Ronaldo, an overpaid well hirsuited so-called sportsman, cost €80million - the look on his face on not being able to participate in the shootout, Priceless.

However, whether or which he laughs all the way to the bank.


----------



## bazermc (29 Jun 2012)

Well there you go, the two teams in Irelands group now in the final!


----------



## Shawady (29 Jun 2012)

bazermc said:


> Well there you go, the two teams in Irelands group now in the final!


 
I was just thinking that. It's the same Euro 88!


----------



## michaelm (29 Jun 2012)

ajapale said:


> 0-2 at half time.


Just as well I kept my money in my pocket.


----------



## elefantfresh (29 Jun 2012)

I have Italy in the sweep in work - didn't think I'd see them into the final!!


----------



## Shawady (29 Jun 2012)

Think Italy were 14/1 at the start.
They were definitely underestimated.
Pirlo is having a great tourament.


----------



## TarfHead (29 Jun 2012)

bazermc said:


> Well there you go, the two teams in Irelands group now in the final!


 
So does that reflect well on the Ireland team ? No shame in finishing last in the group containing the winner and runner-up of Euro 2012 ?

No ? Thought not . The Ireland team were pants. End of.


----------



## Shawady (29 Jun 2012)

Come on TarfHead. We need to graps at some straws .

It's interesting though that the groups that were considered the toughest (ours and Germany's ) provided the 4 semi-finalists.
If we had have been drawn against teams such as Greece, Poland, England we might have picked up the odd point but not much more than that.


----------



## DB74 (29 Jun 2012)

There's no doubt now that our group was the toughest

Croatia can certainly hold their heads high from their performances against the 2 finalists


----------



## MrMan (29 Jun 2012)

I think Germanys group was tougher, and I would also argue against Portugal being a one man show. Ronaldo only scored in two out of their 5 games and they have quality right across the park. They were the better team in their semi and are unlucky to be out of the tournament.


----------

