Hungry 40-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo fires Portugal past Germany into the Nations League final

MUNICH – Portugal midfielder Bernardo Silva has praised Cristiano Ronaldo’s “hunger” for the game, after the 40-year-old striker continued to defy the years with a 68th-minute winner which booked a spot in the Nations League final on June 8.

Ronaldo came into the tournament amid swirling doubts about his future at club level, with the veteran’s contract at Saudi side Al-Nassr set to expire at the end of June.

In May, he posted on social media that “the chapter is over” as reports emerged he could switch to another club, potentially Saudi side Al-Hilal, in order to play the Club World Cup in the United States in June and July. But he left the speculation behind on June 4 as he knocked in his 137th international goal in the 2-1 win in Munich, extending his own record in his 220th game for Portugal.

Ronaldo had missed a few half chances but after Francisco Conceicao levelled following Florian Wirtz’s opener for Germany early in the second half, he was on the spot to tap in a Nuno Mendes pass which put Portugal on track for victory.

“It’s his ambition to keep going,” Silva said of his long-time teammate. “It’s never easy – I don’t know how old he is, he’s like 40 – to still be hungry to go every day. He’s been doing this for more than 20 years. It’s tough, but he’s here with us and we’re happy he scored again.”

The victory was Ronaldo’s first against Germany, after five straight losses. Portugal last beat Germany in the Euro 2000 group stage.

Portugal coach Roberto Martinez echoed Silva’s statements, saying Ronaldo’s “hunger” and desire to improve made him a unique figure in the sport.

“It’s difficult to put into words. He takes each day as an opportunity to get better,” Martinez said.

“As a human, when you have success, you wake up and you have less hunger. But not Cristiano.”

The former Real Madrid and Manchester United forward also won praise from opposing coach Julian Nagelsmann, who singled out the veteran’s professionalism as the reason for his longevity.

“He is investing everything in his body, from sleep to nutrition, to the intensity of his training, so that everything doesn’t hurt as much as it should at 40,” he said.

Germany had lost just one of their previous 17 games but Nagelsmann admitted that it was a “deserved defeat”. He added: “We gave the game away in the first half. Defensively, we lacked the ruthlessness that we’ve had in recent games.”

Portugal could have grabbed a third goal very late in the match but Germany goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen stretched impressively to perform a double save.

Winners of the inaugural Nations League in 2019, they will now face either European champions Spain or France in the final at the same venue.

“We need to enjoy the victory – we won for the first time in a while against Germany. Tactically we were exceptional and our commitment helped... it was a team victory. Now we can recover and evaluate. We want another performance with personality in this shirt,” Martinez added.

For Conceicao, the win carried extra significance, as his father Sergio scored a hat-trick the last time Portugal beat Germany 25 years ago.

Meanwhile, it was a disappointing 100th appearance for Germany captain Joshua Kimmich.

“The defeat is absolutely deserved. We weren’t playing well enough in the first half. After going 1-0 up, nothing came of it in the second half,” he told reporters.

“We have to learn from this. If we’re not at 100 per cent, we can’t beat a top European team. Today was one of our worst games, purely based on our performance.”
REUTERS, AFP