Portugal's skipper and star forward Cristiano Ronaldo's performance in the group stage of the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar has come under scrutiny. According to the sports rating website sofascore, the free agent's lacklustre form meant that he was been named in their worst XI of the group stage of the tournament.
In a list compiled by SofaScore, Ronaldo was leading the line with an average rating of 6.37 across the three group matches. He could not manage a single goal from open play and his only goal came against Ghana via a penalty. The 37-year-old's performance against South Korea was also responsible for the team's opening goal.
Consequently, Portugal were beaten by the Taegeuk Warriors in the final group match.
While Ronaldo leads the line in the worst-playing XI, he is joined in the front by Qatar's golden boy, Almoez Ali with a lowly SofaScore of 6.23. The midfield has players from the eliminated teams like Canada's Tajon Buchanan — 6.10, Qatar's Karim Boudiaf — 6.30, Saudi Arabia's Abdulellah Al-Malki — 6.15 and Australia's Matthew Leckie — 6.33.
The two centre-backs in the team are Costa Rican defenders Francisco Calvo with a rating of 6.25 and Oscar Duarte with a rating of 6.30). Meanwhile, Canadian defender Alistair Johnston — 6.40 has been placed at right-back and Homam Ahmed — 6.23 is his counterpart at left-back.
Ronaldo's age has seemingly caught up with him, and this weakness of his has been identified by opposition teams. His role as a poacher in the penalty box is continuously being questioned, and this is not helped by his tumultuous stay at Manchester United was more often than not, plagued by this particular question.
While Ronaldo did better than his teams during the 2021-22 season, he could not fit into Erik Ten Hag's tactics as the Dutch play a high-pressing game.
Portugal take on Switzerland in their Round of 16 fixture on Tuesday, December 5. They had a fruitful group stage. beating Ghana and Uruguay to qualify for the Round of 16 before losing to South Korea in the final game.