International Winners & Losers: Ronaldo, Portugal, Olise, Gyokeres, Croatia, Rice…

Cristiano Ronaldo is the biggest loser of this international break, which has been an extremely positive one for Portugal, Michael Olise and Northern Ireland.

The longest mid-season break since the 2022 World Cup is now over and attention will turn back to the Premier League and all the Manchester City unpleasantness.

Before Planet Football does so too, we’ve rounded up the biggest winners and losers from this latest stretch of international matches.

Portugal

Jorge Jesus has done what Roberto Martinez was too cowardly to do – get the Cristiano Ronaldo monkey off their backs.

In his absence, an alternative utopia has been discovered with fluid wins over Denmark and Norway (twice).

They were the first team to qualify for the Nations League quarters, a competition we almost forgot they’re currently holders of.

It’s also been a superb window for Goncalo Ramos, who was showing as long ago as the last 16 of Qatar 2022 that he had the chops to lead the line for Portugal.

Now all those technical midfielders have a mobile target to thread passes to, the Portuguese are a different proposition.

Michael Olise

Quite simply a Fantasy Footballer. It’s no wonder Zinedine Zidane has fallen in love.

Elliot Anderson

That £116million price tag looked like a potential millstone, but Anderson has enjoyed a quietly superb international break.

Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham will get the headlines, but the (for now) Manchester City midfielder seems to grow more composed with every England appearance.

Anderson is a complementary midfielder, the kind who won’t make the game about himself but quietly makes everything tick. Which is incredibly un-English.

Greece

For years, we’ve noticed the same middleweight European teams qualifying for tournaments: Belgium, Croatia, Switzerland and at least one of Denmark or Sweden.

It’s easy to forget Greece were tournament staples too. They reached all but one major finals between 2004 and 2014.

Absent ever since, an exciting generation is destined to become Euro 2028 dark horses.

Konstantinos Karetsas (Dortmund), Christos Tzolis (Arsenal), Charalampos Kostoulas (Brighton), Giannis Konstantelias (Dortmund again) and Konstantinos Koulierakis (Roma) are all young and playing in Europe’s top five leagues.

This Greek team first came onto our radar with an actually-quite-funny Wembley win over England in 2024, before dismantling Scotland in a Nations League play-off.

Now they’re unbeaten in four Group B matches against Germany, Serbia and the Netherlands.

The win in Augsburg made the headlines, but they played some expressive stuff going 2-0 up against the Dutch last Thursday.

Fumbling that lead suggests some growing pains, but the raw potential is there to shake up the middleweight order.

Troy Parrott

We’re starting to suspect Parrott choosing Real Betis over West Ham this summer will become one of Irish football’s sliding door moments.

Rather than slog through a Championship season, the striker is building on his eye-catching exploits at AZ and the national team in sunny Seville.

His Puskas-worthy goal against Austria was genuinely outrageous, a slaoming run and finish once he’d clocked none of his team-mates were about to help him.

Parrott now has more goals for Ireland at this stage of his international career than Robbie Keane. Some going.

Northern Ireland

Oxford United’s Ciaron Brown was the only player aged 25 or older to start against Ukraine last Friday. It didn’t matter as they humbled their opponents 3-0.

Only Sweden and France had beaten the Ukrainians in the previous 12 months, really underlining the potential of this Northern Irish team.

Topping a group with Ukraine, Hungary and Georgia is no mean feat. Not conceding a goal in four matches is another boon.

They wouldn’t have home advantage at Euro 2028 after Belfast was pulled as a host venue, but they might win the lot anyway – if they find a striker from somewhere.

Viktor Gyokeres

In January, we wrote that Gyokeres was in danger of becoming the new Francis Jeffers. He cleared that shin-height bar, but few were convinced.

Indeed, it felt like Mikel Arteta, every Arsenal fan and all the journalists attended a big discussion over the summer and collectively decided Gyokeres was crap. His days at the Emirates do feel numbered.

But the striker has been prolific for Sweden over this international break, netting in all four matches and extending his Nations League scoring streak to seven. He remains an enigma.

Losers:

Cristiano Ronaldo

The memes have been great, but such an acrimonious end to his international career should’ve been avoided. Ronaldo can only blame himself for that.

His stubborn pursuit of 1000 goals has hampered Portugal at three successive major tournaments and only an intervention would’ve stopped him from hobbling on to Euro 2028.

Now he’s threatening not to return to the set-up, presumably for a final farewell appearance, while Jesus is still in charge.

The revelation he’d given the coach notes to read out, including one point comparing himself to Pele and Diego Maradona, was the symptom of an overly indulged mind.

The Portuguese suits cannot bow down to this, however intense the screeching becomes.

Croatia

It’s one of our pet theories that Eastern European football is in the doldrums and the international game is poorer for it.

Serbia lost all four matches this break, as did the Czechs and Romania. Ukraine were gubbed by Northern Ireland, who also took four points off Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s Georgia.

And now Croatia have fallen too. Watching England stick seven past them, days after Spain dismembered them for bloodsport, was truly the end of an era.

Luka Modric looked every inch of his 41 years against Bellingham, Scott and Anderson. Ivan Perisic is still going at 37, while Mateo Kovacic’s sole contribution was an astonishing miss, the kind to bring Danny Baker out of retirement.

They recovered some pride in the return match with Spain, but were gradually worn down in the style Croatia made their trademark in the glory days.

Our advice would be to stick a tenner on Croatia for Euro 2036 – they still produce excellent players – but not a day sooner.

Declan Rice

Difficult one, this.

Rice is excellent, but in a very English way. A proper all-action, Roy of the Rovers, box-to-box midfielder.

Even in his West Ham days, the team suffered when Rice bombed on and Tomas Soucek held the fort instead of vice versa.

There’s also a nagging feeling his technique isn’t quite world-class, meaning he’s susceptible to being out-passed in a knockout game against Spain/Portugal/France/Argentina etc.

Alex Scott, by contrast, was a revelation against Croatia. It’s refreshing to see an English midfielder turn and look forward when receiving the ball. England look so much better that way.

Rice won’t be dropped for the foreseeable future, but the promised land has been glimpsed and it doesn’t necessarily include him.

Scotland

Rather like the importance of ending an interaction on a positive, Scotland’s first international break under Sebastian Pocognoli will be coloured by their second-half collapse against Slovenia.

Up until then, their League B campaign had been okay. Results were mixed, but there was enough attacking intent to differentiate it from the end of Steve Clarke’s reign.

But Slovenia schooled them in the second 45 at Hampden, turning defeat into victory and leaving the natives restless.

It’s well-documented that enough talent isn’t coming through the Scottish ranks. A fallow period looks inevitable, with major tournament qualification back in the balance.

Cole Palmer

Palmer pulled out of the England squad citing ‘load management’, despite his summer off and Chelsea not being in Europe, was openly criticised by Thomas Tuchel for doing so and watched England’s frontline make him redundant anyway.

Palmer is unquestionably talented, but will surely regret making himself feel so unnecessary at international level.

Turkey

A group of France, Italy, Belgium and Turkey gives us immaculate Euro 2000 vibes, when the 16-team tournament was the leanest and meanest in football.

And Turkey have some fine players such as Arda Guler and Kenan Yildiz. They also have a self-destructive tendency that inhibits their talent.

After one of the worst Dark Horse performances in World Cup history, the Turks have barely laid a glove on their three group opponents. Vincenzo Montella’s job was shaky before, but increasingly untenable now.

There’s another danger too. With the next edition of the Nations League being restructured into a Swiss Format (sigh), only the two worst bottom-placed teams will be relegated into the second tier.

Turkey are currently the worst. They need a result from somewhere, but they’re traditionally so perverse you can’t rule out them beating the French away.

San Marino

Almost pulled off the greatest result in their history in Albania, only to concede a 93rd-minute penalty and lose 2-1. But they’re edging closer to a big scalp and we’ll be throwing street parties when they do.