Former Germany midfield star Dietmar Hamann has labelled Cristiano Ronaldo “a fool” for his audacious piece of skill in Portugal’s 4-2 loss in Munich on Saturday.
Ronaldo, who opened the scoring with his third goal of the tournament, was clearly in confident mood early on in the game.
He rounded off an excellent counter-attack to put Portugal 1-0 up before things unravelled.
And before the Germans levelled the contest Ronaldo was happy to showboat with a piece of artistry that left Antonio Rudiger bamboozled.
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With the ball in the air Ronaldo motioned as if he was going to catch the ball before flicking it to a team-mate with a no look pass.
Social media were split on the moment with some hailing it and others pointing to the fact that Ronaldo’s side were ultimately well beaten.
Hamann certainly sided with the latter insisting that his actions may well have motivated the Germans on.
He told RTE: “I think it’s nonsense. He flicks the ball over, pretends he is going to catch it and back-heels it across, and looks away.
“Of course it is [amazing] and we know he can do that. I think, in a way he’s belittling the opposition.
“This is at 1-0 and I’m sitting here while you all rave about it. Yes, he is the best, with Messi. He looks a fool now. This is 1-0. He does look the fool.
“If you ask the German players, they’ll tell you now what they thought of it. They would have noticed that.
“I tell you now, all of them will say it may have given us an extra bit of whatever to change things.
“What is he trying to achieve? Maybe this [Germany comeback] is where it all started.”
Germany managed to turn the game around before half-time with Portugal twice putting into their own net.
First it was Ruben Dias and then Raphael Guerreiro before Kai Havertz made it 3-1 early in the second-half.
Robin Gosens made it four on the hour mark before Diogo Jota got one back to leave Group F finely poised going into the final games.
