Leaving Ronaldo on the bench doesn’t necessarily mean the end of the world. Martinez hasn’t learned that

In the television series Lost, some of the islanders believed that if they didn’t enter a sequence into a computer every 108 minutes and press play, something bad would happen. The sequence — 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42 — was a doomsday equation invented by a fictional Sardinian mathematician, Enzo Valenzetti. Roberto Martinez approached this European Championship as if he was hunched over a keyboard, waiting to type the number 7 and press a button with Ronaldo’s face on it, fearful that the end of the world would come if he didn’t do it in the countdown to each kick-off.

Assurances that the sun would still rise if he left Ronaldo out of his starting XI probably wouldn’t have changed Martinez’s mind. Only goalkeeper Diogo Costa has played more minutes for Portugal this summer. Martinez kept faith with Ronaldo when he failed to beat Jindrich Stanek, the Czech Republic goalkeeper who once played for Hyde United in the English seventh division. He backed him against a heavily rotated Turkish side that included the reserve goalkeeper, Altay Bayindir, whose only appearance for Manchester United this season was against Newport County in the FA Cup, where he scored twice against him. He backed Ronaldo when Georgia’s back three, including Guram Kashia, 36, and Giorgi Gvelesiani, 33, a defender who played for Persepolis in Iran, kept him quiet.

The lack of goals didn’t seem to bother Martinez. Nor did the limit it imposed on his team’s potential. He just kept pushing the button.

Without Ronaldo’s clever move, Martinez argued, Francisco Conceicao would not have scored Portugal’s injury-time winner against the Czech Republic. His assist for Bruno Fernandes against Turkey was a “pure moment of Portuguese football that should be shown in every academies in Portugal and in the football world” because, as “an unquestionable goalscorer who lives for goals”, he demonstrated an uncommon selflessness. His tears after Jan Oblak saved his first penalty against Slovenia were “incredible for someone who has won everything and experienced everything”, Martinez said. “He doesn’t need to care so much and that’s why I thank him for the way he is. For caring about the group.”

The less Ronaldo did for the team, the more important he became to Martinez. He coddled him. He fawned over him. In the end, there was little to separate Martinez from the pitch invaders and selfie takers, but even they stopped trying to get to Ronaldo in the quarter-finals. This was supposed to be Portugal’s most talented team since 2004; the one with Luis Figo, Manuel Rui Costa, Deco and the young Ronaldo. They won every game in the qualifiers with a goal difference of +34. But the goals didn’t flow at the Euros.

“Luck or the lack of it is part of football,” Martinez said. Portugal had an xG of 9.41 and scored three times in Germany. Five if you count the goals against the Czechs and Turks. Portugal created the better chances against France. “The opponent was not that efficient either,” observed Martinez’s opposite number Didier Deschamps. “But they were up against a monumental Mike Maignan.” His saves from Bruno Fernandes and, particularly, Vitinha were excellent. The standard of goalkeeping was a factor in Portugal’s exit. Maignan followed Oblak and Giorgi Mamardashvili in making decisive saves.

But for a team of Portugal’s talent to go three games in a row without scoring is alarming, even if it comes against the backdrop of France’s peculiar problems in front of goal. “You can’t control whether the ball hits the post and goes in or not,” Martinez said, alluding to João Félix’s penalty shootout miss. “What we can control is the number of times we get into the final third. We control the game.”

As usual, Martinez entered his post-match press conference with possession statistics and a corner count to lend weight to his argument that “we deserved to win”. Hamburg was, to be fair, the scene of Portugal’s best performance at this Euro. And yet, the build-up was not entirely convincing. Portugal fell behind against the Czechs and needed a stoppage-time goal from Conceição to win. Turkey made four changes, bringing Mert Gunok, Kenan Yildiz, Mert Muldur and Arda Guler onto the bench, and were in the game until Samet Akaydin’s own goal. “It’s a sad moment,” said Martinez.

A tale of missed opportunities. Couldn’t Martinez have called on Tiago Santos, the Lille right-back, to provide a better alternative to João Cancelo than Nelson Semedo, who, at one point at the Volksparkstadion, came back impressively against a desperately poor Kylian Mbappe? Couldn’t he have used more Diogo Jota or Gonçalo Ramos? Why did he take off Bruno Fernandes with 15 minutes to go against France and not Ronaldo? The Portugal captain had two touches in the first 20 minutes. He was, comically, caught offside by a Pepe clearance and then missed a sitter early in extra time when Conceição cut the ball back to him. Ronaldo jumped so high he almost ended up in the bay of this port city. And yet Martinez persisted.

In the coin toss, Ronaldo even chose Portugal to go second in the penalty shootout, even though studies have shown that taking first kicks is an advantage, as the pressure increases on players when you take second kicks later. When Theo Hernandez scored the winning penalty, Ronaldo kept his distance from his teammates. He did not go to console João Félix as Pepe and Ruben Dias did. In the end, he came closer and settled into a long shootout with a tearful Pepe. It felt like the end of an era. Martinez believes it is still too early to say whether the defeat to France is Ronaldo’s last international match. “We just finished the game. It’s all very raw. We are suffering a defeat,” he said.

But if there is one lesson to be taken from this tournament, it is that Martinez needs to understand that leaving Ronaldo on the bench does not necessarily mean the end of the world.

(Dan Mullan/Getty Images)