The performance of Cristiano Ronaldo was much criticized after the meeting between Portugal's national team in front of Wales, which ended with a Portuguese victory, by 1-0. But was it that bad? Sports to the Minute gives the facts for analysis.
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26/09/2026
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O meeting last Thursday, at the Alvalade Stadium, between Portugal and Wales was positive for the result, although the joint exhibition was not very well achieved in the debut of Jorge Jesus as national selector.
One of the names that is always more observed and focused by the international cameras and spotlights is that of Captain Cristiano Ronaldo, who was once again devastated, in particular by the english press.
But was it that bad? O Sports to Minute analyzed each throw of the seven sweater in this match, so as to put everything in ‘clean dishes’.
His first intervention was with a very promising shot that passed centimeters from the left pole of Danny Ward's goal, at nine minutes, which predicted that the duo with João Félix was well calibrated for another night with the goal of Cristiano Ronaldo.
Shortly afterwards, he saw a shot to the mouth of the small area being cut off by the Wales defender for a corner kick, in a bid where, a few years ago, we would have seen Al Nassr's player shoot first and shoot to the bottom of the nets, unlike this case, where he had to dominate and got in the way a little before the shot.
At 26 minutes, here comes the first ‘blank’ of the seven shirt of the national team. The Portuguese advanced received the ball still outside the large area, with João Félix at his side for a possible table. However, CR7 chose to hold onto the ball and even having a second option in Bruno Fernandes, on the left, did not make the pass and lost possession, which gave a dangerous counterattack to the British.
Ten minutes later, I wanted to take a free kick to get the most common result of the last years – the ball hitting the opposing barrier. Following the move, a crossover was taken that ‘got’ Cristiano in a dangerous position – but without frame for shooting – and threw to the side mesh, when there were four other colleagues in better shooting position.
At 40 minutes, frustration and guilt began for the lawn, after a loose shot had gone to the picture and no great power to Ward's hands, in a place where the captain is usually lethal.
The second half began with interesting movements, but only four minutes after the resumption, there was a failure that Cristiano Ronaldo will certainly want to forget, but that will be difficult to remove from the retina. This is because he had a golden chance to double the Portuguese advantage and, just over three metres from the goal line, he threw... into the bench.
After the horror, there was a party from Alvalade to Madeira, but the goal (well achieved) by the Portuguese star was eventually cancelled by an out-of-game milimetric. In the last action in the field, at 66 minutes, he received a pass from Bruno Fernandes to rotate over the defense and shoot... without danger and into the middle of the goal.
But let's do statistics.
In the 67 minutes that Cristiano Ronaldo was on the lawn of the Alvalade Stadium, he made a total of seven shots, only two of them in the direction of the goal – and, say, the opposing goalkeeper – with only eight touches in the Wales area throughout the match.
In addition to the out-of-game that led to the cancellation of his goal scored by the VAR, the captain of the national team managed to be ‘caught’ in an irregular position on two more occasions, not having also achieved any successful dribble.
With a success rate of around 82% on the right passes, he saw this fall to 50% by missing one of the two defensive duels he had in the match. It remains now to know how Jorge will react Jesus to these figures, since he considered that Cristiano Ronaldo played a good game against Wales.