Cristiano Ronaldo breaks silence and Liverpool can give him the explanation he wants

At least Cristiano Ronaldo made himself the main character. In that sense, Portugal vs Slovenia probably went according to his plan — although the exact way things panned out left him searching for answers, ones Liverpool might be able to provide.

Right at the last, Diogo Costa stole the spotlight, making history with three penalty saves out of three to win the shootout for Portugal. Even so, much of the post-game discussion will center on Ronaldo, who spent 120 minutes embarrassing himself and jeopardizing his team's chances at progression.

Before the tournament, Roberto Martinez had actually been praised for the way he has integrated Ronaldo back into the team as a central figure, marginalizing the likes of Liverpool forward Diogo Jota in the process. But the Al-Nassr legend is still without a goal at Euro 2024, and his contributions against Slovenia threatened to dump his country out of the tournament altogether.

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All game, he monopolized free kicks, shooting from unlikely positions in an attempt to replicate that one major tournament strike against Spain that no doubt plays on repeat in his mind whenever he stands over the ball. In extra time, Jota afforded him the chance to shoot a dead ball from a lot closer in, winning a penalty with a positive piece of play.

But even this was not a good enough opening for Ronaldo, who was denied smartly by Jan Oblak. Incredibly, the Portugal veteran was then seen in floods of tears at the interval, with 15 minutes of the game still to play.

He picked himself up sufficiently to convert a penalty at the second attempt, scoring in the shootout as Slovenia's resistance finally crumbled in the face of an inspired Costa. And Ronaldo has now posted on social media. "Inexplicable moments. Let's give it our all! Thank you," he wrote on X [translated].

But Liverpool would tell him that the explanation is in fact quite clear. Slovenia held Portugal for so long because Ronaldo's presence blunted the attack, denying Jota the central berth that would probably have seen the match wrapped up far sooner.

At Liverpool this season, Jota outperformed his expected goals tally by almost 0.4 goals per 90 minutes. He added a ridiculous amount of value in front of goal every time he stepped on the pitch.

And his driving run for the penalty shows he is far more than a penalty box poacher. At this moment in time, he is significantly more well-rounded, and quite simply better, than Ronaldo.

Portugal might have got away with it this time. But as long as Ronaldo (and crucially Roberto Martinez) labor under the impression that the way the game went was "inexplicable", their stay at the tournament will not be extended much further.

Liverpool.com says: Ronaldo is a man not used to not getting what he wants (this, after all, is a player with 997 goals and assists in 1013 senior games of football at club level). When things do go wrong, his instinct is tantrums, tears and worse.

It was a quite remarkable head-loss in this game. On some level, it must be because he knows he was not contributing to the cause, and that the penalty miss merely served to underline the negative impact he had been having all match.

It will be interesting to see if Portugal continues to pander to him, when he is so clearly detrimental. Leaving Jota on the bench, and then asking him to work around Ronaldo when he does come on, is a waste of a far superior option.