Cristiano Ronaldo: “I wish every location would be like Budapest”
The Portugal star is pleased about the conditions welcoming his national team in the Hungarian capital.
The European Championship postponed for this year started last Friday. The whole world discussing the games is not a novelty. However, the most talked-about incident was not related to a move or a goal, but to Danish midfielder Christian Eriksen, who suffered a heart attack at half-time against Finland. He is stable now; nevertheless, let’s hope his accident was the last one of this kind.
Hungary will play its first match against Portugal this afternoon at 18:00.
The tiny country finds itself in a powerful group, among UEFA EURO 2016 champion Portugal, World Cup 2018 winner France and World Cup 2014 winner Germany.
If this encounter gets just a little close to the one that the two national teams played in the EURO 2016, we are in for a treat, as the
Hungary-Portugal match of the last Championship was named one of UEFA’s 5 best games.
The manager of the Portugal national team Fernando Santos and captain Cristiano Ronaldo, answered the journalists’ questions at yesterday’s press conference held online.
He started answering the questions in a somewhat disturbed mood after receiving two Coca Cola bottles when he prefers water. He even advised the world by saying “Drink water!”
https://twitter.com/FutbolBible/status/1404522910107291650
Nevertheless, he had a good opinion of the Hungarian national team.
Ronaldo and Santos talked about the coronavirus situation, their previous performance in the EURO tournaments and the strengths of the Hungarian national team.
“It is perfect, and I wish all locations were able to be completely filled with fans.
This is a very good thing, both for the spectators and for the players, but unfortunately, we do not decide. We know the pandemic situation and that it influences every decision” – said the Portugal captain upon asking him about the total capacity of the Puskás Arena.
He talked about winning as being the most important thing when it comes to a tournament of such grandeur and how he does not care about the position he has to play in, to achieve his goals. He also mentioned that to do so, a player’s most important quality is his ability to adapt.
When he was asked whether the EURO 2016 winner Portugal or the current team is stronger, he preferred not to answer the question directly.
“We will see after the game. We keep on concentrating strongly. We have been focusing on this game for the past 10-12 days. It is not the same team as back in 2016 but a younger line-up. There is a huge potential in us, but we will only know it after the game, whether we are better or worse now.”
“We know that the Hungarian team is very prepared,
but we are ready, too. We will be focused, and we want a good start.”
Manager Fernando Santos highlighted that underestimating the Hungarian national team would be a mistake.
As index writes, he has been studying their past games, and he thinks that the primary weapon of the Hungarian team is the attacks driven from the back, for which he recognised the midfielders. He does not think the Hungarian players would concentrate on defence but take advantage of an offensive tactic.
Santos also highlighted the role of the fans, as according to him,
the Hungarian national team has an outstanding and strong team of supporters behind it that cheers on the players from the first minute until the last.
It is enough to remember the last EURO games when a massive group of Hungarian supporters amazed Europe with their synchronised chants on the streets of Marseille, ahead of the game against Iceland.
15.000 Hungarians rooting for the national team in Marseille
Even though both Santos and Cristiano have a high opinion of the Hungarian national team, saying it is competent, the Portugal manager thinks that they have every chance to win the tournament, maybe even more than the last time. However, he knows that there are at least seven or eight teams that have the potential to win, without mentioning those lesser-known line-ups that always cause huge surprises.
Read also5 best places in Budapest to watch EURO 2020 matches — PHOTOS
Source: index.hu, MTI.hu , mandiner.hu