Too much fuss is being made of the Ronaldo penalty

Despite the best efforts of Portugal to end Spain’s domination in international football, the Cristiano Ronaldo led national team crashed out of Euro 2012 via the harsh medium of penalties on Wednesday night. Despite a number of players churning out superb performances for Paulo Bento’s side, Joao Moutinho in particular excelling, it just wasn’t enough to break down the resolute World and European champions.

Yet, much is being made on Ronaldo, who didn’t take a penalty during the shoot-out last night. Pencilled in to take the fifth spot-kick, he wasn’t granted the opportunity after Moutinho saw his effort palmed away by Iker Casillas and Bruno Alves crashed his strike against the bar. A miss by Cesc Fabregas, who netted the decisive penalty, would have seen the Real Madrid ace step up to take Portugal’s fifth effort.

However, many have been left criticising Ronaldo for not stepping up earlier in the order, with some believing he held back until fifth in the pecking order to receive all the personal glory. A ridiculous theory, it must be said, considering Bento had already decided his five initial takers in the tournament should any game go to penalties before Euro 2012 began.

Too much is being made about him not stepping up to take the decisive fourth penalty that Alves crashed onto the bar. But, if the head coach has already made his list and nominated his takers, there is little argument to be had. It was unfortunate that Ronaldo never got to take his penalty and had either Moutinho or Alves scored, or Fabregas missed, then this discussion would never have taken place.