Monday 11 July 2016 02:23, UK
Nigel Winterburn thinks Cristiano Ronaldo deserves credit for the way he backed his Portugal team-mates, despite coming off injured after just 25 minutes of the Euro 2016 final.
Portugal suffered a huge blow when their captain had to be replaced midway through the first half following a strong challenge from Dimitri Payet.
Ronaldo re-appeared at the end of normal time and was seen encouraging his team-mates from the dugout, kicking every ball from the sidelines during extra time as Portugal claimed a shock 1-0 victory to win their first major tournament.
And Winterburn, who watched the Euro 2016 final for Sky Sports News HQ, thought Ronaldo's actions showed how much winning Euro 2016 meant to him.
"A lot of people will be quite happy that this is not all about Ronaldo," Winterburn told SSNHQ.
"Yes, Ronaldo is their star player but they also had other players in that team who were prepared to work and gave absolutely everything."
"In fairness to Ronaldo, I give him fantastic credit, too, because it's easy to think when you've been injured that you should be out there [on the pitch]," the former Arsenal full-back added.
"However, he was backing his team-mates right until the last moment and although he's only played a small part in the final, you could see how much it meant to him."
Portugal, led by centre-back Pepe, put in a tremendous defensive display to keep out France before Eder's wonderful strike secured them the European Championship trophy.
And Winterburn was full of praise for Fernando Santos' defensive players, claiming Portugal deserved to lift the trophy.
"If you were to sum it up, you'd probably say France struggled to create anything from midfield; they needed that quality player to pick the pass," he said.
"It's fine lines, winning or losing; Portugal created very little themselves but it was a sensational strike to win the game.
"You can't take this away from Portugal. They've produced a performance that was solid defensively and Eder was strong physically - he held off Laurent Koscielny and gave Lloris no chance."
