Pressure has got to Ronaldo
GIANLUIGI BUFFON cried after Italy lost on penalties to Germany in Bordeaux on Saturday night. Robert Lewandowski did the same after Poland passed up what seemed to be a presentable opportunity to beat Portugal two days earlier.
Between them, Buffon and Lewandowski have 11 domestic league titles. They have both played in Champions League finals. They are both very successful footballers.
But playing for your country encourages different emotions in players.
There is a desire to achieve on a different stage and also to live up to the expectations of people back home. It is a release of that pressure after elimination that usually leads to the tears.
With this in mind, it is quite wrong to suggest that players do not care about playing at this level.
Watching Cristiano Ronaldo playing for Portugal can be quite difficult, such is the anguish he appears to suffer during every 90 minutes.
Certainly he cares and undoubtedly Ronaldo’s desire to do well with Portugal has negatively affected his game and his decision-making here in france.
He contributed two goals against Hungary — one of them a real treasure — but on the whole he has not played at all well. Against Poland in his team’s quarter-final tie he contributed three fresh-air shots. Players handle the pressure and the weight of expectation differently. Wales captain Ashley Williams grows into a better player when he pulls on an international jersey. So, in a previous life, did the striker Miroslav Klose for Germany. for others it proves overwhelming. Manchester United and Spain goalkeeper David de Gea has not settled into the international scene comfortably yet, while England’s Raheem Sterling attracted much criticism for failing to produce his best form at Euro 2016. Specific criticism of Sterling (below) seems very unfair. The Manchester City winger did not play well for England but neither did anybody else. As such, it is wrong to single him out. What is clear is that playing international football requires a different set of mental tools to playing at club level. The English are yet to understand this and they are not alone. It is easy to point a finger and accuse an individual or a group of not caring, but it’s very hard to prove. In fact, in some cases you could argue that the opposite is actually true.