Syndicated reporting provided by Stats Perform and reviewed by the SoccerNews editorial team.
Roberto Martinez has no concerns over the unity of his Portugal squad despite their disappointing World Cup start.
Portugal’s campaign got off to an underwhelming start last time out, as they drew 1-1 with DR Congo.
In that game, Portugal recorded their highest-ever possession (75.4%), passes (783), and passing accuracy (92.5%) in a game at the finals. Despite this, they recorded their joint-lowest shot count (seven), and were the first side on record (from 1966) to face more shots than they had themselves (seven to eight) despite having 70%+ possession in a World Cup match.
Martinez’s team will look to get up and running in Group K on Tuesday when they take on World Cup debutants Uzbekistan.
Much of the spotlight has been on Cristiano Ronaldo, who had an ineffective game up front against Congo but was not taken off.
Joao Neves has come under scrutiny on social media after he said Ronaldo was “just another player, here to help”, but Martinez insists his team are fully united.
“We’re more united, we’re stronger,” Martinez said.
“We’re playing a World Cup, of course there’s a lot of noise, a lot of tension, it’s part of the game. Our focus is on the team.
0 – Cristiano Ronaldo has now gone 10 consecutive major tournament games without scoring for Portugal (FIFA World Cup/EURO):
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) June 17, 2026
“We’re more united than before we arrived. There’s no tension.
“We didn’t create chances, and that isn’t normal in a team like ours. We have high-quality players, among the best in the world, and we have to show that on the pitch.
“[Against Uzbekistan], only winning counts. We don’t have any margin for error.”
Ronaldo has failed to score in each of his last 10 major tournament appearances, despite attempting 33 shots and amassing 4.5 expected goals in those games.
Indeed, excluding penalties, Ronaldo has gone 13 appearances without a major tournament goal, firing in 42 non-penalty shots worth 4.5 non-penalty xG in those outings, but Martinez came straight to the defence of his captain.
“He’s probably the biggest example of how to recover, how to train,” Martinez said. “But that doesn’t take away the feeling of frustration we all have, as a team.”
Portugal are aiming to avoid failing to win both of their opening two matches of a World Cup campaign for only the second time, previously doing so in 2014 (lost 0-4 to Germany and drew 2-2 with the United States), which was the last time they failed to progress from their group.
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