Argentina VAR controversy, Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal early exit: Robin Singh refuses to hold back | Exclusive

When you have that lead on your side, you have to find a way to see it through. Especially when you score those two goals, you have to stay focused. If you look at the goals they conceded, they gave away three goals in the space of ten minutes. That’s where you need to stay focused as well. When you start dropping deep that early, you’re going to concede. And when you’ve got somebody like Messi, who can pop up with goals, it’s always difficult. He’s too intelligent in and around the box, and we’ve seen that throughout the tournament.

As much as you can go back and say the decisions weren’t given for me, that’s outside your control. I played football by controlling the controllables - my work, my focus and my concentration.

When you throw away a two-goal lead, you also have to look inside and ask yourself, ‘Was I good enough?’ So, for me, the decisions have to be fair, but at the same time, you’ve got to focus on your job and make sure that a two-goal lead is not blown. The deeper you drop into your own half, the easier it becomes for the opposition. I’ve been in games, especially international games, where you’re defending for 70 or 80 minutes and trying to play on the counter. You need to keep your focus.

People say Ronaldo shouldn’t have played. Even if he didn’t start, at least give him 60 minutes. Then where was the supply? You move further down to Bruno Fernandes, who had the most assists in the Premier League, where was that? Vitinha and Neves controlled PSG’s midfield, but then you changed things around. Rafael Leao, Joao Felix, Pedro Neto on the bench, you have all these players. As I said about Argentina, you play the hand you’re dealt. Martinez had a lot more cards up his sleeve that he didn’t use. For me, he just didn’t make them work.

But if you want to keep Ronaldo on the pitch, then make sure you keep the supply as well. Messi plays as a No. 10. Ronaldo plays as a No. 9. He relies on service. If you go back and look at the number of balls he received, everybody has to take the blame, including Ronaldo. He has to stay inside the box to receive those deliveries. He has to gamble in the box. When you’re leading a side, you have to trust the process. It’s on both sides - the team and Ronaldo.

We saw that physicality in the previous game as well, where they just kept smiling. That’s the French nonchalant confidence that you can see, ‘I’m not getting into this. I am better than you.’ And that confidence has taken them really far.

With Didier Deschamps also leaving for personal reasons, now him coming into the spot, it’s just a mutual respect. With him going down to Mbappé when he was coming off… remember, this is a player-manager who’s won the World Cup. That’s the kind of respect everybody has for each other, to your left, to your right, your coach, everybody is on the same path.

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