After all, with Cristiano Ronaldo returning to Manchester United, the already popular CEO has once again easily become the focus of the football field, especially after he meets up with Manchester United's former "thigh" player B Fei at the club, their prospects in the national team are definitely more worth looking forward to. Facing Ireland who didn't even score in the European Championship, it seems like winning is easy, but is football that simple? Yangyang dare not sensationalize and casually say that Portugal cannot win over Ireland at home, but there are some details that we should pay attention to.
Starting from Cristiano Ronaldo, he has become a frequent guest of the Portuguese national team since his debut. Even when senior players such as Figo and Rui Costa were still the backbone, no one denied that "Little Ronaldo" at that time was the future ace of the Five Shield Legion. So, since the 2006 World Cup qualifiers, Cristiano Ronaldo has already secured a starting position for the national team. Taking into account the current qualifiers, Cristiano Ronaldo has already played for Portugal in 4 games. So, how did the Portuguese team with Ronaldo perform in 23 home games in the previous matches?
Overall, the Portuguese team has a record of 18 wins, 4 draws, and 1 loss, with a very high win rate. The only game that resulted in a stunning defeat was in 2008, when Portugal lost 2-3 to Denmark and then suffered two consecutive draws with Sweden and Albania. This was also Portugal's worst performance at home in the World Cup qualifiers. This means that in addition to these three consecutive home defeats, the Portuguese team has won 18 games and drawn 2 in the other 20 games, which is still a very high level. Behind these superficial numbers, we must also admit that Portugal has always signed well in the World Cup qualifiers, with their strongest opponents being Switzerland, Russia, Denmark, and Sweden, who have the ability to participate in the World Cup. I haven't had a bad luck like Italy encountering Spain in the qualifiers yet. Therefore, let's put it another way. Before these 23 games start, shouldn't the vast majority of fans think that Portugal should have won 23 consecutive games against such opponents in these 23 home games?
But in fact, Portugal has five opponents who haven't won, in addition to Sweden, Denmark, and Albania mentioned earlier, as well as Israel and Northern Ireland. When facing the elimination of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Sweden in the World Cup playoffs, they only won 1-0, let alone participating in the qualifying playoffs, which means Portugal has won second place in the group. With these opponents, Portugal can still win second place in the group?
