The Portuguese National Team will play their third and final game of the group stage today against Switzerland. Switzerland, who have already been eliminated from the tournament, will surely try to go out on a positive note and give their best performance. Portugal, on the other hand, have already qualified and will need to stay focused. Speculation has Portugal playing their B-Team in order to rest their best players.
Portugal’s star winger, Cristiano Ronaldo, will most certainly not make the starting line-up as new Chelsea manager Scolari looks to give game time to players who have yet to play.
Portugal’s next opponent has yet to be decided, but it hasn’t stopped the off pitch politics and mind games from commencing. Earlier this week, Croatia went public in saying that they were happy to avoid Portugal in the quarter-final round. Just two days later, when the possibility of Croatia playing Portugal grew, they again went public in saying that they would feel sorry for Cristiano Ronaldo, because it would most certainly mean an early exit for Portugal.
Quarter-final opponents, in most part have yet to be decided. What we do know is that only a few teams are fancied to be standing on the field for the final game. Portugal is one of those teams.
The Portuguese National Team had a perfect start to this year’s Euro tournament, with two wins in their first two games to put them through to the knock out stages.
Cristiano Ronaldo knows that the toughest games are ahead, and Portugal are not taking any team for granted.
Portugal began their tournament with a game versus Turkey which they had a decisive win of 2 - 0. Four days later, they beat the Czech Republic 3-1. C. Ronaldo was involved in all three goals of that game, scoring one and setting up the other two.
There is a strong possibility that Portugal will face tournament favorites, Germany, in the quarter finals. Germany is presently the runners-up to Croatia in group B.
“I’m certain that game after game, it’s going to be progressively more difficult,” Ronaldo told euro2008.com. “We have to be prepared for this. There have already been surprises. Germany were the favourites against Croatia and Croatia still won.”
Ronaldo also confirmed speculation that Scolari will be resting his key players in the next game versus Switzerland, however he insists that the game will not be taken lightly.
“Our motivation remains the same,” he said. “The players who are coming in are going to give their best as they will want to show Mr Scolari they want to be in the first eleven. I think it’s going to be a good game because the majority of the players who will play haven’t played yet.”
Below is a video of an interview on Portuguese Television by Cristiano Ronaldo. It is conducted solely in Portuguese, but Cristiano Ronaldo7.com has translated it into English.
This interview was shot after the Barcelona game in Manchester England. During the interview, Ronaldo says that Final games are not meant to be played, but to be won.
How right he was!
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