“He was provocative in his game but not at all a joker” – Djibril Cissé, former Bleuets striker (2001-2003)
Djibril Cissé, about France-Portugal 2003 (1-2, 1-4 on penalties), in the return play-off match for the Euro Espoirs: “At the time, I was already in the senior team, but I had been called up to the Espoirs by Raymond Domenech for this play-off match. I didn’t know Cristiano Ronaldo, but I had of course heard about a young player who was outclassed and scored quite a bit. Despite everything, we didn’t put an anti-Cristiano plan in place. In the first leg, we won 2-1 and we didn’t see him, he wasn’t dangerous at all. I remember that he was even heckled a bit by his fans because he was trying to make pointless moves.
In the return leg, however, it was he who opened the scoring, even if he wasn’t that impressive, at least while I was on the pitch, since I was sent off just before the break (44th), shortly after I equalised (41st). Some Portuguese players had been teasers, but that wasn’t the case with him at all. He was provocative with his game, technically capable of driving defenders crazy, but not at all teasing. And he was the one who scored the last penalty.”
“I remember complaining for over an hour about his dives” – Raymond Domenech, former coach of the Blues (2004-2010)
Raymond Domenech, on Portugal-France 2006 (0-1), in the semi-finals of the World Cup: “He wasn’t Portugal’s main threat. There were other top players, (Pedro Miguel) Pauleta, (Luis) Figo, and then the midfielders who came in and were dangerous, Deco and Maniche. We didn’t focus on him. He played on the left side, and he was quite easy to handle, especially since Willy (Sagnol) was as fast as him. What was dangerous was when he passed the ball straight to his midfielders, who could really finish off the moves. The only dribble that was really dangerous was on Éric Abidal, at the end of the match.
I remember complaining for over an hour about his dives, at every contact. I didn’t stop, with the referee, with the fourth official, I told them “the 17, he just dives!”, and I tell myself that it paid off, because in the end, there was perhaps a foul on him and the referee didn’t whistle anything. I did it like Guy Roux (laughs). With the VAR, we might have had problems.”
“Ronaldo’s premature exit took an incredible weight off their shoulders” – Bacary Sagna, former defender for Les Bleus (2007-2016)
Bacary Sagna, about France Portugal (0-1), Euro 2016 final: “Facing Cristiano Ronaldo in this Euro final was, for me, a personal challenge. It never bothered me to face such strong wingers. I took it as a challenge. And it was a responsibility. It was a match within the match and I convinced myself that if I blocked him, we would win. At that time, the Portuguese played for him, everything was centered on him. It was absolutely necessary to neutralize him to rein them in collectively.
Then he came off quickly after his contact with Dimitri Payet (replaced by Ricardo Quaresma in the 25th minute). And that changed the scenario of the final. Tactically, his compatriots said to themselves that they had nothing more to lose. They became linked as not possible. When one of them was beaten, there was always another to compensate. I think that this premature exit of CR7 frustrated them, but it also took an incredible weight off their shoulders.
