Euro Vision: Cristiano Ronaldo's performance woes

Gulf News

Gulf News’ Sports Desk looks forward to the key Euro 2016 matches over the coming week. Spain look impressive but there are question marks over Belgium and Portugal and speculation on  how far will England go. See more at: http://gulfnews.com/gntv

Transcript

00:00With every team having now played at least twice we're starting to get a

00:08clearer idea of who's hot and who's not. Joining me once again to share their

00:12insights is Golf News deputy sports editor Duncan Hair and our sports writer

00:16Abdul Rahman. So gentlemen I think the first thing we need to discuss is the

00:19fact that the overall quality has been a bit lacking especially from the de facto

00:24top teams. So with that in mind who's impressed you most? I think I'll go with

00:29Spain because their last performance in a major international tournament like

00:34the World Cup in 2014 they went out from the group stage and now that to see them

00:39with four goals in two games and having conceded any goals so far it's quite

00:45impressive. So which teams would you say have surprised you the most or better or

00:49for worse? I think the amount of surprises has been the most surprising

00:54thing. Iceland, Albania, Hungary, Northern Ireland, Wales they've all done

01:00exceptionally well. So guys let's talk about the new format where the four best

01:04third place finishing teams moved through to the last 16. Now there's a bit

01:08of a logistical issue here because we won't know who those top four teams are

01:12until Wednesday giving the teams that have already qualified only a few days

01:16to get ready for the actual stage which begins on the Saturday. Is that a bit of

01:20a short-sighted mistake by UEFA? I mean how do you guys see that? I do. I think

01:24it's farcical to be actually honest that you don't know that your opponent three

01:28days before the actual match is taking place. Quite honestly you need a degree

01:31to work out who you're actually going to be facing. The amount of parameters,

01:34possibilities that you could actually get. I know this was used for World Cups

01:37in 80s, 90s but it might just be that UEFA are looking to get a 32 team

01:43tournament. To be honest I would say whichever team they're gonna face they

01:48have to be ready anyway because a tournament of this magnitude you should

01:51expect anything. So on Monday night England take on Slovakia in Group B and

01:56we've heard through the grapevine that Roy Hodgson will be making six changes

02:00to his starting 11 which includes leaving Wayne Rooney on the bench. Now is

02:04that a stroke of genius or perhaps just outright stupidity? Tell me guys what do

02:09we think is happening here? Massive gamble admittedly and making that many

02:12changes for a game that England still do need to actually qualify for. They do

02:16need something from it to cement a place in the next stage but but I think it

02:22could be a smart move because I'm not at all convinced that England can play the

02:26system they're doing at present with that amount of forward players against the

02:29better team and get away with it. I think they will be run over in midfield. So

02:33bringing in Henderson alongside Dyer, bringing in Wilshire, that little more

02:38protection is what England will definitely need and having those players

02:42with tournament experience going into the knockout stages is I think a good

02:47move as long obviously they do actually get the result against Slovakia. Now I want

02:50to very quickly talk about Portugal's clash with Hungary. Portugal have drawn

02:53to when really they should have won to. The wheels seem to be coming off their

02:58campaign. What's going on there? Cristiano Ronaldo? Definitely Cristiano Ronaldo.

03:03Last time he faced this goal drought in World Cup 2010 for example. He

03:11ended up scoring a goal with the back of his head and it was it was sort of

03:14depressing to see him in this kind of form and he sort of gets nervous for a

03:20player of his of his quality. He gets nervous when he hears what is said

03:25about him in the media and we've seen this in the last game they played and he

03:30was desperate for a goal and I think this is what led to this depressing draw.

03:35I think he's trying to be quite honest. 20 shots that he actually had against

03:41Austria the other night obviously the penalty being the one that he missed but I think

03:44Portugal rely far too much on him and he is trying to play above himself rather

03:50than playing his natural match. Portugal really do lack a front man. Nani up

03:55front doesn't work. Nani's a wide man. I think Portugal could go out at the group

04:01stage and even if they do make it in I think any team will be rubbing their

04:04hands with glee at the prospect of getting Portugal. Perhaps the except of

04:08England of course and penalty kicks. Well let's hope it doesn't come to that.

04:11Let's hope it does. The last group stage match takes place on Wednesday before

04:16the round of 16 gets underway on Saturday. As ever you can stay up to date

04:20with the latest news, fixtures and results on golfnews.com. Don't forget to

04:24follow us on Twitter at Golf News Sport always using the hashtag Euro 2016.

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