Portugal National Team Can Use Cristiano Ronaldo To Become A Powerful Weapon

Portugal national team player, Cristiano Ronaldo (upstream left). (Photo: Twitter @selecaoportugal)

JAKARTA - The Portugal national team coach, Fernando Santos, has released a list of players to be brought to the Qatar 2022 World Cup. One of them is Cristiano Ronaldo.

Calling Ronaldo actually invites a lot of comments. Not a few doubt the capacity of the player nicknamed CR7.

Especially if you look at his performance at Manchester United. In addition to rarely becoming a starter, Ronaldo also began to be effective in scoring goals.

It also then spread to the national team. In nine games with A Selecao, Ronaldo failed to score.

However, the former Real Madrid and Juventus player still have the support of his teammate, Bernardo Silva. According to him, Ronaldo can be a powerful weapon if his team can take advantage of his presence.

"The reality is when you have a player like Cristiano, it's natural that sometimes you play for him because he can win games for you in the last minute," Bernardo said as quoted by FIFA's official website, Sunday, November 13.

"It's the same with other countries. It's natural, for example, France always relies on (Kylian) Mbappe because he can decide the game at any time. Brazil has Neymar and Argentina has Lionel Messi."

"When you have players like this on your side you have to take advantage of them, although I agree you can't be too dependent on them because this can disrupt the dynamics of the team. However, if we do it right, having Cristiano in our team will be a powerful weapon," he continued.

Portugal will begin their struggle for the 2022 World Cup against Ghana on November 24. After that, they will face Uruguay and also South Korea.

The following is a list of the Portugal national team players for the Qatar 2022 World Cup:

Goalkeepers: Diogo Costa (Porto), Rui Patricio (Roma), Jose Sa (Wolves).

Defenders: Joao Cancelo (Manchester City), Diogo Dalot (Manchester United), Nuno Mendes (Paris Saint-Germain), Ruben Dias (Manchester City), Pepe (Porto), Raphael Guerreiro (Borussia Dortmund), Danilo Pereira (Paris Saint -Germain), Antonio Silva (Benfica)

Midfielders: Joao Palhinha (Fulham), Matheus Nunes (Wolverhampton Wanderers), William Carvalho (Real Betis), Ruben Neves (Wolves), Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United), Joao Mario (Benfica), Bernardo Silva (Manchester City), Vitinha (Paris Saint-Germain), Otavio (FC Porto)

Forwards: Joao Felix (Atletico Madrid), Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United), Rafael Leao (AC Milan), Ricardo Horta (Braga), Goncalo Ramos (Benfica), Andre Silva (RB Leipzig)