Portugal coach Fernando Santos shrugged off suggestions Cristiano
Ronaldo will be weighed down by the burden of his country’s hopes in
their Euro 2016 quarter-final with Poland on Thursday.
At 31
Ronaldo is unlikely to have a better chance to finally land a major
tournament with Portugal. The winners in Marseille would face Real
Madrid teammate Gareth Bale’s Wales or Belgium in the last four.
The
three-time world player of the year has had an up and down tournament
in France. He scored twice against Hungary to save Portugal from an
embarrassing group stage exit and became the first player to ever score
in four different Euro finals in the process.
However, he has failed to hit top form in front of goal and missed a penalty in a 0-0 stalemate with Austria.
“Everybody
is talking about him and there is a reason for that…he is an amazing
player,” Santos said on the eve of the Poland clash.
“People only talk a lot about the great players. There are hundreds of players that we don’t talk about every day.
“It
is a natural thing some are mentioned more than others because they are
amazing players. Ronaldo knows how to deal with that.”
Portugal
have reached the last eight without winning a game in 90 minutes. They
were the only side to get through the group stage with three draws and
then edged a dire last 16 tie with Croatia 1-0 thanks to Ricardo
Quaresma’s header three minutes from the end of extra-time.
Ronaldo’s only shot on goal against the Croats led to the goal as Danijel Subasic parried his effort into the path of Quaresma.
In
his previous three games Ronaldo had 29 shots on goal, but Portugal put
on a defensive masterclass to shut out Croatia and Santos admitted he
has to find a balance between defence and feeding his star man.
“We
want to strike a balance of course. We would rather he (Ronaldo) shot
on goal 15 times and scored 10 goals (a game), but our opponents won’t
let us.
“In all our matches we try and strike a balance and every player plays his role. That is what we have to do tomorrow.”
The
tie has been billed as a shootout between Ronaldo and Bayern Munich
striker Robert Lewandowski, who is yet to score in four games at Euro
2016.
Portugal midfielder Adrien Silva refuted the criticism aimed
at Ronaldo for his wayward displays against Iceland and Austria in the
group games.
“It is well-known that Ronaldo is very important for the national team, there is no point beating around the bush,” said Silva.
“Cristiano
is here with us, he has been in form, he is our captain and an amazing
player. We should focus on the fact he is here with us.”
One
Portuguese player who has been in fine form despite his limited
opportunities in Lewandowski’s new Bayern teammate Renato Sanches.
The
18-year-old showed why the German giants paid Benfica 35 million euros
($38 million) for his services as he came off the bench to win
man-of-the-match against Croatia.
However, Santos resisted calls for Sanches to start for the first time in the tournament.
“The
Portuguese team is one of the few teams that have five players who were
at the Euro under-21 championship and one at the under-19 (in 2015) in
Renato so they can also be in Brazil at the Olympics.
“They have fewer matches behind them, but as time progresses they come into their own.
“He
(Renato) only started working with us in March. He is still growing and
it is up to me to analyse and decide if he can be useful for the team.”
Portugal are considered one of the strongest teams at the Rio Olympics in August.
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