How Portugal have turned things around after a disappointing World Cup
Portugal cruised through qualifying to reach Euro 2024 despite concerns over manager Roberto Martinez, and questions over Cristiano Ronaldo's future in the team.
The country turned to Martinez following their quarter-final exit at last year's World Cup in Qatar. They crashed out of the tournament to Morocco in a game where Ronaldo only came off the bench, after prior manager Fernando Santos decided to drop the Portuguese icon from the starting XI after the group stage.
Martinez was appointed in January and local outlet A Bola revealed that in a poll, 75 per cent of Portuguese fans were against his appointment.
The Spaniard was often blamed for Belgium's golden generation - consisting of the likes of Kevin De Bruyne, Eden Hazard, Romelu Lukaku - failing to win a trophy or reach a major final during his six years in charge.
Martinez though has inherited a team whose morale was shot after the loss to Morocco and has turned their fortunes around with a 100 per cent record in qualifying to reach Euro 2024. While Ronaldo scored ten goals to reestablish his position in the Portuguese team at the age of 38.
Ronaldo, following his exit from European football to Saudi Arabia and his struggles at the World Cup, was supposed to be a player in decline.
But contrary to what many would have expected, he has struck up a good relationship with Martinez and scored in six of the nine games that he featured in the qualifiers - including four braces.
It has taken his scoring record to a staggering 128 goals in 205 games and despite making his senior international debut two decades ago - Martinez believes he is still as hungry as ever.
As per AS Sport he said: 'It is difficult for me to explain how a player who is 38 years old and has more caps
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