Ronaldo - The end of an era.

I'm just settled down to watch the Ireland V Portugal friendly before the euro's start next week. Unfortunately this is the end of our involvement by warming up a few of the qualified teams like Hungary who we actually beat and now Portugal who would have a serious squad.

Just look at their world rankings, in between Brazil and Netherlands.

Then in comparison you have us sandwiched in between the football powerhouses of South Africa and Finland.

It's been a tough few years watching the national squad with little to cheer for. I don't see tonight being much different. They have quality all over the pitch and even more sitting on the sub bench. Just look at their starting 11.

• Costa.
• Dalot.
• Silva
• Pepe
• Inacio
• Cancelo
• Fernandes
• Neves
• Leao
• Ronaldo
• Felix.

Quality everywhere. Nowhere more so than their captain and icon Cristiano Ronaldo. Say what you want about Messi but for me he has been the best player throughout my lifetime and between the two of them have broken pretty much every record going.

However at 39 this is the end of the road for him on the national team if not the club scene. That is yet to be seen. Even at 39 he is still a prolific goalscorer with 35 goals and 11 assists in 31 appearances for Al-Nassr this season. Impressive stats at any stage never mind at this stage of his career.

Can we get a fairytale ending to his career with another major international trophy??

Looking at their group

Portugal
Turkey
Georgia
Czech Republic

You have to expect that they will get out of the group at a minimum. After that the knockout stages can throw up any results but the team itself is good enough to win the tournament. And i wouldn't be surprised to see Ronaldo scoring a few goals and being a big part of it. Even now watching the game he is right in the mix and causing us a lot of trouble.

Ref: Theportugalnews.

Posted Using InLeo Alpha