The Portuguese team said goodbye to the 2026 World Cup in the round of 16. Roberto Martínez's team could not overcome Spain. Ricardo Quaresma, former player of the Portuguese team, expressed his criticism of Portugal's performance in the World Cup.

The Portuguese team was one of the favorite teams to win the World Cup. The individual performance of many of the Portuguese footballers inspired the Portuguese team in the previous round.

Ricardo Quaresma was never convinced that this was Portugal's golden team. The former footballer born in Lisbon acknowledged that it was a World Cup with very low performance from the entire squad.

"Everyone said that this was the best team in the history of Portugal, but based on what? What have they won? We are going home with our heads down. We have great players and a lot of talent in the midfield, but their performance in this World Cup has been very, very weak. The same thing happened with the attack, and the defense seemed disoriented," Quaresma said after Portugal's elimination.

The former Sporting Lisbon footballer believes that the Portugal team gave the game to Spain. Although at times the duel was even, “La Roja” had control of the match. There were few dangerous actions by Roberto Martínez's team.

"Nothing worked, from start to finish. Everything went wrong (...) Today we gave the game to Spain; they did what they wanted with us. It seemed like we were walking, we were slow, without desire for anything," he added.

Portugal's latest eliminations in the World Cup

World Cup 2026: Eliminated in the Round of 16 against Spain (0 – 1).

World Cup 2022: Eliminated in the quarterfinals against Morocco (0 – 1).

2018 World Cup: Eliminated in the Round of 16 against Uruguay (1 – 2).

2014 World Cup: Eliminated in the group stage (they failed to qualify for the round of 16).

2010 World Cup: Eliminated in the Round of 16 against Spain (0 – 1).