Portugal can win without Ronaldo- Santos

Portugal head coach Fernando Santos believes his team can win without Cristiano Ronaldo following their 3-0 victory over Norway at the Estadio Do Dragao on Sunday.

And the 61-year-old insists ‘best player in the world’ Ronaldo will be fit in time for this summer’s European Championships in France as Portugal holds its breath,

“I don’t know why we’re not discussing the game and we’re always talking about Cristiano Ronaldo, Spain says he’s not physically well, that our team depends on him. Obviously we all recognise he is a key and fundamental player in this team, but obviously Portugal needs to create conditions to believe we can win without him.

“That’s what we try to do. You can’t say without Cristiano our chances are over. The things are not like this. He’s the best player in the world and a key player, but is clear we need to be prepared and that’s why we keep a way of playing, not as good as we wanted to be, as we try to keep a standard for if we play without him, what will not happen, certainly, but we need to be prepared to continue seeking the victories without Cristiano,” he told a news conference.

Goals from Ricardo Quaresma, Raphael Guerreiro and Eder were enough for Santos’ side as they prepare for Estonia next Wednesday in their final warm-up game.

“About this second question, I’m not worried about Cristiano, next weekend he’ll be here with the colleagues, with a strong desire to help the national team, with a strong desire to make a great Euro, the team and him; they’re what concern me right now. Everything else are journalistic questions that not concern me.

“It was a good win in the number of goals. I would say it was a good win in this matter, about the game I think it was enough, with positive aspects, some not so positive – not bad, but not so positive,” he added.