Quickly becoming the biggest voice in Portuguese punditry, cult hero Ricardo Quaresma didn’t hold back after his country’s World Cup exit.
Portugal lost 1-0 to Spain in the last 16 in a dull affair, much like most of their tournament.
And that was an accusation Euro 2016 winner Quaresma levelled at Ruben Dias post-match.
Dias joined the pundit and said it was one of Portugal’s ‘best performances in terms of balance’.
Quaresma struck back.
Quaresma takes Ruben Dias to task
“I don’t quite agree with what you’re saying,” he said.
“From the beginning until now, I think you could have given much more.
“I felt you played too far back and to the sides, with a lot of possession, but without looking for depth.
“You didn’t shoot much on goal and created few scoring opportunities, except for the last five minutes. Possession alone doesn’t win games.”
Dias responded, claiming it’s harder to dominate a game without an identity like Spain.
Dias responds to Portugal critique
He commented: “You’ve spent enough time in that context to understand everything involved in the national team: different personalities, different mentalities trying to come together.
“Bernardo spoke about this; we have excellent individual players, but we don’t have a playing style like Spain.
“They all think the same way, they all come from the same batch. We have to find that balance, and that’s not easy, because each player thinks differently.”
“We have to make the most of the qualities of our teammates…”
Quaresma then interrupted, pointing out the quality in the Portugal squad.
“We have Rafael Leão, Neto, Conceição , players capable of going one-on-one and unbalancing the opponent,” he said.
“It’s not just about having possession of the ball and passing it around. We have to play more offensively…”
But Dias got himself the last word, disagreeing with Quaresma that they could’ve done more.
He finished: “Everyone has their own opinion, but I think it’s reductive to mislead people and send the message that we don’t do things because we don’t want to…
“We played the way we played to find balance. Madness brings nothing positive. Madness makes us chase the ball and go to places we don’t control.
“We need to be objective; that’s what we’re looking for. It can’t be ‘bang, bang, bang, everything forward’. We want to give our best.
“And I’ll say it again: it was our best game against Spain since I’ve been with the national team.”
Quaresma takes on Roberto Martinez
Quaresma was then equally annoyed listening to Roberto Martinez’s resignation press conference.
The Spaniard said he was ‘proud’ of his Portugal team, and the ex-winger couldn’t hack it.
“Proud of what? I still don’t understand this pride he has,” he began.
“He was in Belgium with a fantastic generation and never delivered anything.
“He arrives here in Portugal with an incredible generation, and still hasn’t delivered anything.
“We won a Nations League . Are we going to be happy with a Nations League? For me, that’s not enough.
“There are things that revolt me. If we didn’t have talent and quality, everything would be fine. But you have enormous talent and quality!
“Whose fault is the identity? The coach’s. He still hasn’t discovered the right tactic to play with.
“Martinez never impressed me. He tried 50 tactics, none of them worked. And there’s the proof.
“We left with the team that everyone said was the best of all time… but the best of all time in what? What did they do? What did they win?”
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