Portugal Coach: No Point in Substituting the World's Best Goalscorer

Portugal's head coach, Roberto Martinez, has clarified his decision not to substitute superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, despite his underwhelming performance in the shocking 1-1 draw against DR Congo in the team's opening World Cup match in the USA, Mexico, and Canada.

"There's no point in substituting the world's best goalscorer in a match where you need goals," stated Martinez. He also drew parallels between his team's shaky start and those of Spain in the 2010 World Cup and Argentina in Qatar: "The World Cup is a tournament where these things happen. Argentina lost to Saudi Arabia and then went on to win the World Cup. In 2010, Spain lost to Switzerland and then also triumphed with the World Cup. These weren't performances that looked like potential champions, but they are part of the process. After all, we're talking about the first match of the World Cup. Today, we scored the first goal in the match, and the emotions from it negatively impacted our performance. We stopped taking risks, looking for space, and reaching the final third of the pitch. This was more due to emotions than tactics or technique. It happens and it's part of the World Cup. Now we will analyze it and improve for the second game."

The reigning Nations League champions will face Uzbekistan on Tuesday evening, a team that lost its opening tournament match 1-3 to Colombia.