Talking about his first U21 match with Ronaldo, Crouch: I thought Quaresma was stronger at the time

October 13 News Former England striker Crouch has played against Ronaldo 9 times at the club level and only won once - that game was in the 2006 FA Cup. Crouch scored the winning goal for Liverpool and defeated Ronaldo's Manchester United. Earlier, they had already played against each other in the U21 match between England and Portugal. In an interview with the Mirror a few days ago, Crouch said that it was Quaresma who impressed him more in the U21 game, not the young Ronaldo.

In March 2003, Crouch went to Portugal with the England U21 team, which also included Joe Cole, Carrick and Barry. However, they are no match for Portugal U21. Ronaldo and Quaresma each scored in that game, and Portugal won 4-2.

Less than a year later, Ronaldo was selected for the Portuguese adult national team together with another U21 player Helder Postiga, and eliminated England in the 2004 European Cup. At that time, Ronaldo had already begun to become famous, but during the period before he joined Manchester United, few people understood his potential.

Crouch recalled: "It is an honor to compete with players like Ibrahimovic, Ronaldinho, Messi, and Ronaldo. The first time I played against Ronaldo was in the U21 game. He and Quaresma were on the court at the same time. We knew nothing about them at the time. I was still shouting to my teammates Samuel and Paul Konchesky on the court: 'Keep an eye on him! How did you get beat up?' But we had no idea at the time that the two people opposite were Quaresma and Ronaldo."

"To be honest, I thought Quaresma was stronger at the time, but look at what Ronaldo later achieved..." Crouch added, "I still remember that time when Quaresma passed a long pass of 60 or 70 yards, Ronaldo used his back Stopping the ball and passing it, I thought - 'Who is this guy? He has always maintained his playing style as a winger, rather than transforming into a prolific shooter like Cristiano Ronaldo, but he still played as many as 80 times for the national team. He even came on as a substitute in the 2016 European Cup final, replacing the injured Cristiano Ronaldo.

At the club level, Quaresma has played for giants such as Barcelona and Inter Milan, but his most successful period was in Porto and Besiktas. He played just 34 minutes as Inter won the Champions League, and his only Premier League experience was a brief loan spell at Chelsea, where manager Luiz Felipe Scolari was sacked a week after signing him.