Roberto Martinez may not be much of a manager but he's a master of misdirection. He was at it again on Monday night, the Spaniard skilfully shifting the spotlight onto Cristiano Ronaldo's remarkable resilience and away from the pathetic performance that preceded the penalty-shootout win over Slovenia.
Plenty of pundits and supporters lapped it up. Ronaldo, Martinez argued, had been so brave to take the first spot-kick after missing one earlier in extra-time. He hadn't been embarrassing, he'd been an "example" to his team-mates, and all of Portugal was so very proud of him.
"Unbelievable!" former England striker Alan Shearer enthused on BBC One. "This is why they are great players - because they have great mental strength." In truth, though, what we had witnessed in Frankfurt was not an inspirational show of strength but irrefutable evidence of weakness - and not from Ronaldo.
Martinez was so keen to talk up Ronaldo's redemption in his post-match press conference because it was the narrative he needed to take the focus off his own failings. After all, better to have the press talking about the Portugal captain's courage rather than the coach's cowardice.