Cristiano Ronaldo said this Monday that he has already recovered to take the field in Portugal’s first match against Ghana at the World Cup in Qatar on Thursday (the 24th), after a minor health problem saw him absent from the meeting with Nigeria. before the team left for the game. “I feel good. I have trained well, me and the team, and I feel prepared to start the World Cup in the best way”.
At the press conference, Ronaldo assured that the atmosphere in the squad is “excellent, there are no problems”, and that the controversial interview in which he criticized Manchester United “will not affect” what the team wants in this competition, which is to win.
He emphasized that “the group is fine”, that it is a united team, with “very high ambition” and that the interview with Piers Morgan, in which he criticized the English club and coach Erik ten Hag, will not “make the vote.” make it shake.” group. “We are all body and soul in the national team,” Ronaldo assured at the training center of Al-Shahaniya SC, on the outskirts of Doha.
“O”timing is always the timing🇧🇷 You can easily express your opinion, write. I don’t have to think about what others think. I am absolutely sure that it will not affect the selection’s performance and will not be affected by what others say or write. The group is armored, it’s a united group, everyone wants to play. It will not shake anything,” Cristiano Ronaldo assured
He also noted that he had been “joking” with Bruno Fernandes, a team-mate in the Manchester United squad, as he was one of those who later arrived in squad work, devaluing speculation that the relationship between the two might are influenced by the controversial interview, after images released in the dressing room of the corner team.
“I know that people like me and it is not with a range of criticism that they bring me down. In these last stages there are always moments, controversies. It was the joke with Bruno [na chegada à seleção]also the situation with Cancelo, who was down because of the move with [João] Felix training. It was more of a controversy, but I’m used to it,” he complained.
He also said that the “Cristiano case is closed” and asked journalists not to ask the other players in the national team about him.
“Winning the World Cup? It would be spectacular, it would be a dream,” the Portugal international admitted, referring to the need to go “with composure”. We must first think about the first game against Ghana, he defended.
“I really believe that our team has tremendous potential,” he said. And do you believe you can win the match? “We’ll see, I have that hope, that feeling, but you have to think calmly, think about the group first, the first match with Ghana”. For Ronaldo, Portugal’s debut at the World Cup is very important and the first meeting is difficult because it is essential “to start well, with the right foot to gain confidence and go slowly from there”.
On whether Portugal is the best selection, the player said the answer will come at the end. It defends that “whoever wins is the best selection” of the test. He emphasizes that “the demand is very high”, but he repeated once again that it is necessary to think calmly and that first the matches are in the group stage. “To win the league we have to be the best and if we believe we are the best we have to show it on the pitch,” he reflected.
This is the fifth World Cup for Ronaldo, aged 37, and could be the last of the player’s career, guaranteeing he has no additional responsibility. “I always have a responsibility. As a player, as a friend, as a father, being busy is part of my daily life,” he said. He said he feels “able to take the pressures” when he has to take them on”.
When asked if the old discussion about who is the best player in the world would be him or Lionel Messi (Argentina), who has already announced that this would be the last World Cup, the Portuguese believes that “even if he World Cup win there would always be this debate”.
In an allusion to an advertisement in which the two appear to be simulating chess, Cristiano Ronaldo, who is “extremely optimistic”, admitted: “I would love to be the one to checkmate in football, it would be magical, a dream.” for me”
He said he is in one of the most important football leagues and, as he said before, “it was a dream to win”. “I also keep saying that if I stopped winning trophies at the end of my career, I would be proud of what I did”.
He stated again that he does not follow the records, and those are the records that follow him. “Beating our Eusébio’s record would be special, but it’s not something that keeps me awake at night,” said Ronaldo, referring to the highest number of goals scored by a Portuguese player in a closing phase of a World Cup.
The former striker remains the Portuguese player with the most goals in World Cups, scoring nine goals in the 1966 edition, the only one he played. Ronaldo already has seven goals in four final stages (2006, 2010, 2014 and 2018) and managed to surpass Eusébio in Qatar.
According to the player, Brazil, Argentina, France and Germany are the favorites to win, but he remembered that in 2016 nobody cared for Portugal and after all we won. There will be surprises again.
Portugal’s Group H debut is scheduled for Thursday against Ghana at Estádio 974 in Doha, before playing Uruguay on November 28 and Paulo Bento’s South Korea on December 2.
The 22nd edition of the World Championship will run until December 18 in Qatar.
With Lusa
News updated at 09:30
Source: DN
