Roberto Martinez defended Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo once again after he played another 90 minutes at the World Cup in their 0-0 draw with Colombia. Playing at his sixth World Cup, Ronaldo made his 25th appearance at the tournament, but he was unable to help Portugal topple Colombia as they finished second in Group K. The 41-year-old struggled to make an impact at Miami Stadium, hitting the target with just one of his three shots while also only having 35 touches. Among Portugal's outfield players that started the match, he had the fourth-lowest tally. In addition, he was called offside twice. Across the last two World Cups, he has been offside 11 times, four more than any other player (Kylian Mbappe and Luis Diaz both seven). Unlike Argentina's Lionel Messi and Norway's Erling Haaland, who both started their respective final group games on the bench, Ronaldo was put in to start from the off. He is one of three outfield players, along with Bruno Fernandes and Renato Veiga, to play all 270 minutes of Portugal's campaign so far, and Martinez does not think that will change any time soon ahead of the knockout stages. "Obviously, we don't compare players in our team with other players to make decisions. I think that would be quite childish and very unprofessional," Martinez told reporters."I can tell you that we monitor all the [player] information that we get live during the games. "There are different positions on the pitch that need different needs, and we monitor that down to the detail. Cristiano is used to being in the right place at the right time."There is no issue, physically or mentally, for Cristiano in today's game to play the 90 minutes. Maybe the next game we need to make a change, but that's like any other player."Portugal's reward for finishing second in the group is a tie against Croatia, who beat Ghana in their final Group L clash to finish second behind Thomas Tuchel's England. The match takes place on July 2 at Toronto Stadium, one day before the first anniversary of the death of Diogo Jota."Obviously, every day is difficult. When you are training, there are always moments when Diogo Jota comes back into our memories," Martinez added. "So I wouldn't say that the anniversary needs to be especially difficult. I would say that it's a little bit of a celebration. "We need to honour Diogo Jota. It's a moment to cherish, that everything we started in this team started with him. We won the Nations League with him. He's probably the sign and the light of the biggest stimulation that we have."We want to win the World Cup for him. The anniversary is just a moment that makes the game Diogo Jota's game."It's not a difficult moment, the difficulty is every day when he's not there physically. Probably moments like this, when you don't win a game, the reference of having his desire, his belief, is always very clear in our presence."A Federação Portuguesa de Futebol e todo o Futebol português estão completamente devastados com a morte de Diogo Jota e do seu irmão André Silva, esta madrugada, em Espanha.Muito mais do que o fantástico jogador, com quase 50 internacionalizações pela Seleção Nacional A, Diogo… pic.twitter.com/EN901fH6FG— Portugal (@selecaoportugal) July 3, 2025For Colombia, meanwhile, back-to-back wins over Uzbekistan and DR Congo proved to be the difference as they finished top of the group, with Ghana up next in the last 32. They are now unbeaten in their last four matches against UEFA opponents in the World Cup (W2 D2). That is after avoiding defeat three times in their previous eight matches (W1 D2 L5), though they will feel they should have taken all three points. Colombia attempted 24 shots against Portugal, their most on record in a World Cup match (since 1966), surpassing the 23 attempts against the United States in 1994.Nestor Lorenzo's side registered an expected goals (xG) total of 1.7 from their attempts, though only six were on target, compared to Portugal's tally of 0.93 from their 13 shots. And the Colombia boss was left to bemoan his side's profligacy in the final third, suggesting his team's wastefulness would be punished in the latter stages of the tournament. "These are teams with elite players, and if you miss so many chances, you'll suffer a bit more than today," Lorenzo warned."We were okay with that draw. We still finished at the top of the group. We tried hard against Congo, we only had one goal, and today we couldn't do it."So we wish we had been able to finish, but the performance was very good, and I'm grateful to the players."Lorenzo was also asked whether his team's performance against one of the World Cup favourites would raise expectations too high in Colombia."Truth be told, I believe people are hopeful," he said. "The other day I said that when they hired me, they hired me to qualify, and now people want you to win the World Cup."So there is hope, we also are hopeful, but you have to take it one match at a time."The post Martinez defends Ronaldo’s World Cup minutes after draw with Colombia appeared first on SoccerNews.