Roberto Martinez is sticking with CR7.
The Portugal manager once again has Cristiano Ronaldo leading his line against Uzbekistan in Group K action from the FIFA World Cup in Houston.
Martinez has made changes elsewhere, though. Joao Felix draws in for Bernardo Silva and the now fit Ruben Dias starts in place of Tomas Araujo in central defence.
The 41-year-old Ronaldo was a largely ineffective figure in the team’s 1-1 draw against Congo DR on Matchday 1.
Both Ronaldo’s manager and his teammates came to his defence after the match.
“Cristiano is the best one to do that,” Martinez responded when asked what’s needed to spark the Portugal attack. “The numbers support this of this iconic player who is Cristiano Ronaldo. If you look at the past 32 games, he is the player that has extra movement opening spaces and finding pockets.”
Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Joao Neves’s fairly innocuous quote after the draw last week was met with backlash in Portugal, with some pundits suggesting the team’s knives were out for Ronaldo.
“We know what Ronaldo has done for our national team, but at this moment I feel that for him, and for everyone, he’s one of us,” Neves said. “He’s one more player trying to help, he’s no different to the others. He’s here to contribute like we all will.”
With Colombia looming on the final matchday of the group, Portugal needs a result against Uzbekistan, who were 2-0 losers to Los Cafeteros in their opening match.
Capped 229 times, Ronaldo has 143 goals in a Portugal shirt but has gone scoreless in his last four matches. It’s his longest international futility streak since failing to score in any of Portugal’s five matches at Euro 2024. He also failed to score in the team’s last five games at the 2022 World Cup.
Portugal and Uzbekistan have never met in a competitive fixture before.
