Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo didn’t have nice words to say about Iceland after the 1–1 draw during their Euro 2016 opener on Tuesday.
The Real Madrid star seemed very frustrated when he stormed off the field after the final whistle and even refused to shake hands with his opponents, as is customary. The reason for his behaviour appears to be Iceland’s defensive tactics and how they celebrated the draw.
Despite being the underdog and the smallest country in the tournament, Iceland managed to snatch a point from Portugal after Birkir Bjarnason made history scoring the equalising goal.
This surprising draw between the two teams made Iceland fans cheer, sing and hug, and that seemed to bother Ronaldo.
‘I thought they’d won the Euros the way they celebrated at the end, it was unbelievable,’ said the footballer.
He added that their tactics showed ‘small mentality’ and that he didn’t see a successful journey for them in the competition. However, a country with only 330,000 citizens qualifying for Euro is actually a big achievement, and we should not forget that the island nation defeated Turkey, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands during the qualifications.
As for the Portuguese star, he had ten shots on goal in Saint Etienne, but he didn’t manage to score, as the best opportunities came for Nani, the goal scorer in this game.
Portugal will next face Austria on Saturday, and then have the final match in the group stage against Hungary in Lyon next Wednesday.
