Iker Casillas has taunted club teammate Cristiano Ronaldo, claiming the Portuguese captain is underperforming in the European Championships.
The Spanish captain told Marca:
“Ronaldo’s season at Madrid was incredible in terms of the way he played, the goals and the records,”
“I don’t think that right now he is at his best level.”
However, Casillas is aware of Ronaldo’s propensity to shoot from far and acknowledges that he will have to be on the alert for any deviation in the flight of the ball due to the unique way Ronaldo strikes it.
“The ball does something strange,” he told Marca, adding that those being used at Euro 2012 did not bend and swerve as much as the “Jabulani” used at the World Cup two years ago.
“It doesn’t quite reach those extremes but if you give it a good whack it always swerves in a deceptive way,” he said. “I’ll have to be on my guard.”
Spain and Portugal have faced each other 34 times so far with the Spanish winning 16 of those encounters and the Portuguese only managing 6 victories over their Iberian neighbours.
Casillas will be making his 136th appearance for Spain in Wednesday’s Euro 2012 semi-final. If Spain win, the Casillas will become the first player to rack up 100 victories in international football. That is a remarkable record by Casillas.