Europe says yes to Lisbon

IT might be Lisbon treaty day in Ireland today but yesterday in Geneva, this non-aligned part of Europe was entirely preoccupied with a Lisbon treat. Mind, they were made to wait for it.

Portugal eventually beat the Czech Republic 3-1 in the Stade de Geneve but the Czechs were unlucky not to get at least a share of the points. Similarly, the stats will show that Ronaldo helped make two goals and scored another, but they won’t record that, for long periods of the game, he was in danger of being eclipsed by Milan Baros, a man of whom it’s probably fair to say that the whole world of football is not exactly hanging on his next move.

Like the Lisbon Treaty itself, Ronaldo is hard to read. Yes, he helped set up an early opening goal for Deco and selflessly played in Ricardo Quaresma for the clinching tap-in with time running out. But in between there were times when he was not much more than a passenger on the pitch, attracting attention only when he lost possession and did one of his trademark ‘Mummy-I-want-an-ice-cream’ supermarket sit-down tantrums.