The Portuguese generals are in harmony. Martinez excuses Cristiano Ronaldo s elbow, saying that other players had already taken penalty kicks.

In the latest round of European World Cup preliminaries, Portugal lost 0-2 to Ireland and missed the chance to advance. Cristiano Ronaldo started the game in this campaign. In the 61st minute of the game, he was sent off with a direct red card for a retaliatory elbow attack. However, Ronaldo and the Portuguese coach still did not realize their mistakes in this game. The generals were at odds, and Martinez was still looking for reasons for his disciple.

Portugal coach Martinez attended the pre-match press conference between Portugal and Armenia in the World Cup preliminaries. Martinez found a reason for Ronaldo's elbow to turn red. He said this: Ronaldo just wanted to continue the game. If it were any other player, he would have fallen in the penalty area and took a penalty kick.

After Martinez's remarks came out, they aroused huge heated discussion among fans. Some fans directly ridiculed: Tell me, tell me, which player likes to fall to the ground and take a penalty kick the most?

It is understandable that the coach defends his disciples. Ronaldo's intentional elbow attack cannot be washed away, and may even be punished by FIFA. Martinez is the coach who delayed Belgium's golden generation. At that time, he liked to use Hazard who was out of form. Now Cristiano Ronaldo is the ace player at the 9th position under Martinez's tactics. As long as Cristiano Ronaldo is not injured, he will be Portugal's main center forward. I hope the Portuguese generals will work together to achieve good results in the 2026 US-Canada-Mexico World Cup, and even win the championship. But the World Cup is not Ronaldo’s dream. Perhaps Ronaldo’s dream is to complete the 1,000-goal milestone bit by bit.