India, June 22 -- Ricardo Pepi stepped in for Christian Pulisic and did okay. Igor Thiago made way for Matheus Cunha and Brazil breathed again. Argentina have successfully played around Lionel Messi. All of which leads to the question: can Portugal find a silver bullet to the Cristiano Ronaldo problem?

Thierry Henry saying the team, not Ronaldo, needs to score has aged well after the 1-1 draw against DR Congo. Between that and Tuesday's match against Uzbekistan, Joao Neves has found an anodyne comment about Ronaldo being part of the collective being mangled on the internet. Hopefully, there won't be the kind of internal combustion that flattened France in 2010 but to the Ronaldo conundrum, Portugal need an answer. Fast.

The 2026 opener ...