Portugal defender Ricardo Carvalho claims that Portugal flopped in the 2010 World Cup finals because of misfiring striker Cristiano Ronaldo. The Chelsea player pointed out that he and his defensive partners all did their jobs well, conceding only one goal in four matches in the tournament, but Portugal’s strikers – led by captain Ronaldo – could only find the net in one game.

Portugal’s only win in South Africa came against North Korea when they put on the offensive performance of the tournament in thrashing the Asian nation 7-0, with Ronaldo scoring once – his first competitive goal for his country in over two years.

Yet Ronaldo failed to find the net against subsequently against Spain while his fellow forwards did no better as they all failed to score against the three other teams they faced.

Carvalho made it clear that he thought the Portugal defenders all did their jobs well as reported by the Sun, but the team could have done more with more productive effort from the likes of Ronaldo.

“I think you need more offensively,” Carvalho said.

“We defended well but you have to create more chances to score.

“We were just playing on the counter-attack and I think you need more to win this kind of game.

“Everyone wants to do better but the reality was sometimes we lost the ball quickly and it was difficult because Spain had more possession and were more dangerous.

“Of course, we had one or two chances and if you score then it could be different.

“But in the end we should do more offensively to try to win the game.

“We defended well and didn’t create too many chances, though we’ve got great players to do it.”

Ronaldo landed himself in hot soup after the defeat to Spain when he spat into a camera at the world audience.

Tags: Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal, Ricardo Carvalho, World Cup, World Cup 2010