Portugal will travel to the United States on Friday and Cristiano Ronaldo said the team needs to focus on getting off to a good start, rather than thinking ahead of time about competing for their first title. world cup title.
The Portuguese are one of the favorites to win the 48-team competition, and the 41-year-old will be playing in his sixth World Cup, the most alongside arch-rival Lionel Messi.
“It’s important to get off to a good start, get good results in the first and second races, and finish first in our group,” Ronaldo told reporters in Portugal before his team departed. “Then we’ll take it game by game, but don’t expect to win it all. We have to take it step by step. A good start is the most important thing.”
Portugal will play their first Group K match against Congo in Houston on Wednesday. The team will then play Uzbekistan again in Houston on June 23, before finishing the group stage against Colombia on June 27 in Miami.
Ronaldo said that as the tournament progresses, “When the conditions get tough and the mental and physical fatigue shows, we will see who is the real champion.”
This will be Portugal’s ninth appearance in the World Cup. The team finished third in 1966 and fourth in 2006, when Ronaldo made his World Cup debut. In 2022, Portugal advanced to the quarterfinals, but lost 1-0 to Morocco.
Ronaldo, who won the European Championship with Portugal in 2016, said the team’s preparations at home had been intensive and productive. He said he is feeling well and the entire team is ready and hopeful to win their first World Cup title.
“They’re a very good generation of players,” said Ronaldo, who spent most of his professional career with Real Madrid and Manchester United and now plays in Saudi Arabia. “But there are also factors that we cannot control. The most important thing, winning or losing, depends on many factors. But this is the generation that will make the Portuguese people happy.”
___
AP Soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
