Euro 2012: Portugal build a wall to hide behind

Their attacking star taunted by opposition fans, squad berated for lavish lifestyle, the team spirit has formed from defensive attitudes, Ian Hawkey reports from Warsaw

Cristiano Ronaldo and the Portugal squad are to avoid individually talking to the media, after heavy criticism of the team and in particularly the Real Madrid forward.

There is a rage at the heart of the Portugal national squad and it has lurked there since a troubled qualifying competition for Euro 2012 began. It is expressed, at the moment, in very few words.

Portugal's players decided after their win against Holland last Sunday, the reward for which is the quarter-final against the Czech Republic in Warsaw, not to talk individually to members of the media.

A number of issues have peeved them, notably the heavy criticism of Cristiano Ronaldo, the captain, for his unusually low shots-to-goals ratio in the first two games of the tournament - a defeat against Germany and a 3-2 win over Denmark - which he then corrected with his two strikes against the Dutch.

But they are also uncomfortable with a gathering distaste, expressed in the Portuguese press and by a number of senior figures in the country's football community, for the apparent disconnect displayed between the young, well-paid men representing the county at the Euros, and the struggling population of one of the Eurozone's most depressed nations.

One distinguished Portuguese coach, Manuel Jose, formerly of Benfica and Sporting and until recently highly successful with Egypt's Al Ahly, described the national squad's camp as a "complete circus" in the lead-up to the event. He reminded the players that "behind this team is a country where most people are not hopping from party to party. Looking at this squad is like watching Big Brother."

He was referring to the number of social functions, often arranged by sponsors, the players were attending. Columnists noted how ostentatiously the senior players, most of whom play outside the Portuguese league, had arrived at pre-tournament training, and the cost of the cars they drove there.

Portugal's footballers are not unique for being interested in showing off the trappings of high salaries.

But within a country as economically downcast as theirs, bound to a regimen of austerity following its financial bailout by the EU, they are liable to be condemned for flashiness. It has been noted that the hotel where the Portuguese have been based in Poland, in Opalenica, is the most expensive any of the 16 federations involved at Euro 2012 have chosen.

So now the players have drawn a line: No more apologising in the face of media questioning for the fact they might drive a Porsche and house two or three other luxury vehicles in their garages; and, in Ronaldo's case, no more prickly responses to questions about the fact he is taunted by opposition fans chanting "Messi, Messi" at him, the teasers confident that hearing the name of the one attacking player in the world who tends to be admired more than he is will bruise his ego.

Ronaldo's decisive finishing against Holland has quietened a little the debate about his role in the national team, diverted focus from the very distinct goals-to-game ratios he returns for Real Madrid and for Portugal.

It has not convinced all his compatriots that Ronaldo is the best candidate for wearing the captain's armband, but at least the country's one megastar is in Poland.

Portugal are not a team everybody wants to play for and one of the several challenges their young coach Paulo Bento, once a teammate of Ronaldo's at Sporting, has faced in his 20 months in charge is hearing senior players tell him they wish to retire from international duty.

Seven have done so since the last World Cup and some expressed their unhappiness with his set-up with a good deal of rage: Real Madrid's Ricardo Carvalho stormed out, Chelsea's Jose Bosingwa left in a huff. Chelsea's Paulo Ferreira, Valencia's Miguel, Fluminense's Deco, Atletico Madrid's Tiago and Besiktas' Simao have also bid farewell.

Two or three of those would have been useful additions to a squad that evidently constructs much of its football around Ronaldo, that seeks to give their captain a chance to run at goal, ball at his feet.

"He is the best player in the world," declared Raul Meireles, who broke the media silence on Tuesday, obliged to give a press conference by the competition organisers.

Meireles was keen to style Portugal as underdogs, which can scarcely be their role against the Czechs but probably will be if they are the first team into a semi-final quartet expected to include Germany, Spain and either Italy or England.

"I won the Champions League with Chelsea, when nobody expected us to do that," Meireles pointed out. "Nobody has put Portugal among the favourites here, but Chelsea winning the Champions League is an example of how you can achieve your dreams against expectations."

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