Jose Fonte explained what changes in the national team when Cristiano Ronaldo is not playing.
“Portugal has the qualities to do it in every game, but we have to be honest: his very presence on the field makes the national team players unknowingly and automatically play for him, always give him the ball. For who he is, for what he has done and for what he is still capable of,” said the 2016 European champion on the BBC daily podcast shortly after the crushing victory over Switzerland.
“When he is gone, Portugal play more as a team and it was noticeable: they played smoothly, without any focus, everyone contributed, and it was nice to see,” said the 38-year-old central defender from Lille. “We had success with Cristiano Ronaldo during these years, he was very influential. Gonzalo Ramos has a different game offer and we had a great evening, we were all happy for him. I hope it stays that way.”
Fonte does not believe that the Benfica striker will now lose his title. “How if the boy scored three balls?” He also does not believe that Ramos will change his behavior, especially in relation to CR7: “You cannot teach a legend like Ronaldo. Ronaldo will always be Ronaldo and for Portugal it is even very good that a player like him comes off the bench, it will be another problem to challenge opponents.”
Believing in the triumph over Morocco, despite the fact that this is a “tough” team, José Fonte expects something more from the Portuguese flowers: “Fernando Santos brought a very strong mentality to the national team. The team is great at defending together. And it will cause problems in attack in every game. I believe that Portugal will reach the end of the road, the World Cup is the title that we lack. Let’s keep our fingers crossed for this to happen.”
