Littbarski: ´Ronaldo did nothing´

Former Germany winger Pierre Littbarski has accused Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo of failing to live up to his reputation in national team colours.

The 27-year-old endured a largely frustrating evening against Joachim Loew’s Germany side as he was pinned back by Jerome Boateng and struggled to exert any real influence on proceedings in his country’s 1-0 loss.

And Littbarski, who was a World Cup winner with Germany in 1990, believes the Bayern Munich defender deserves little praise for shackling the ineffective Ronaldo.

“Ronaldo did nothing,” he told Goal.com. “Look at him playing for Real Madrid.

“Everybody’s talking that Boateng had a great game. He wasn’t so good that he took Ronaldo out of the match.

“Ronaldo simply did not perform again in an important match for his country. He was disappointing and our players get the praise for that. I do not like that.”

Looking ahead to Germany’s hotly-anticipated clash with Netherlands in Kharkiv on Wednesday, Littbarski said it was difficult to predict how the Dutch would line up after their shock loss to Denmark.

“The biggest problem will be that you don’t know how Holland are going to play,” he said. “They could field two strikers or play with (Rafael) van der Vaart and (Wesley) Sneijder. You don’t know what to expect.

“If Netherlands had beaten Denmark, it would be easier for Germany.”