Blogs


Andy Brassell
Quaresma winging his way back?
09 June 2008, 06:00

Ricardo Quaresma cut a determined figure among the colour, noise and festivity of Portugal's Sunday training session at Stade de la Maladière in Neuchatel. Left on the sidelines for Saturday’s Group A opener against Turkey, the FC Porto winger looked like he had something to prove, being full of running and firing in a succession of powerful shots to test recently-arrived reserve goalkeeper Nuno Espírito Santo.

Fallen behind
In the match at Stade de Genève, Quaresma was the only one of the group that coach Luiz Felipe Scolari described as "four of the best ten wingers in the world" who didn't get any game time. Despite taking part in more games in Portugal's UEFA EURO 2008™ qualifying campaign than any of the other winger bar Cristiano Ronaldo, the 24-year-old appears to have fallen behind Simão and Nani in Scolari's pecking order, though, interestingly, the coach frequently encourages Quaresma to take charge of free-kicks in training.

Recall
Ahead of the match against the Czech Republic on Wednesday, it is unlikely that Quaresma will regain his place, but what do you think his chances are of returning to the starting line-up later in the competition? Should he be in the team? If Cristiano Ronaldo moves to a central position as he did after Nuno Gomes went off against Turkey, who would you select as your two wingers? Let us know.