Matchday 1 of the group stage finally concluded after Group F teams kicked off their UEFA Euro 2024 campaign. As Turkey came out on top against Georgia with a 3-1 win, Portugal also managed to carve out a 2-1 victory over Czech Republic. While the aftermath saw criticism for the 2016 winners as well as their star player Cristiano Ronaldo, Patrice Evra has come in defense, claiming it is ‘not fair’ from the media to do so, as he simultaneously underlined the biasedness towards Harry Kane while drawing parallels to CR7.
Following the match, he said, “If Portugal lose, first headline will say, Cristiano shouldn’t start. And you asked me a question before the game, do you think he [Roberto Martinez] is gonna take him him in the last 10-15 minutes? No, because he is always creating something. We are gonna see that goal I hope. Cristiano always does something in the last minute, last second.”
“People are always gonna talk that Portugal are playing bad or take off Ronaldo. I think it’s not fair because if you compare the game of Ronaldo and Harry Kane, Ronaldo will have more opportunity and touch more ball than Harry Kane. But no one is gonna say, ‘Oh England should take off Harry Kane.’ So I think we have to stop talking about the age of Ronaldo.”
(More to follow…)
