Ronaldo and Bale prepare for semis showdown

Real Madrid team mates Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale are preparing to face each other in the Euro 2016 semi-final between Portugal and Wales in Lyon on Wednesday.

Ronaldo scored one of the five penalties that sealed Portugal’s path to the last four in their quarter-final victory over Poland on penalties in Marseille.

The Portugal captain has scored twice so far in Euro 2016 as he looks to equal Michel Platini’s all-time European Championships record of nine goals in the competition.

Meanwhile, Bale has played an instrumental role throughout the tournament for Wales, scoring three times including two free kicks.

“Qualifying was one my dreams to do. To make dreams come true isn’t easy so when I was younger I always wanted Wales to be in a major championship and to be involved in it now is even better.

“I had that burning desire to get to a major championship and to be here now we just have to take it all in, enjoy it and give 100% as I said,” Bale said.

“Listen he plays for Real Madrid- he’s one of the biggest superstars in world football so obviously the interest. And so if you’re Wales, proud Welshman. We’re very proud that he’s a Welshman himself and the way he plays for his country, the way he represents the jersey.

“On top of his ability and his skill there’s a huge passion. And so we’re all extremely proud. So for everybody else outside Wales, they’ll look at Gareth and obviously respect and admire him. But I look at all our players and for me I think Wow’ we’ve got a real good team,” Wales coach, Chris Coleman added.

Football’s two most expensive players have faced each other five times before with Bale yet to taste victory over Ronaldo.

“Cristiano Ronaldo is a player that everyone talks about and there is some reason for it. And why does everyone talk about him? Because he’s a great player.

“You just can talk a lot about some players and ask a lot about some players when this player is a great player. If he was not a great player we would not talk about him.

“There are several players here but we always end up talking about him and this is perfectly normal to talk about a player with the quality of Cristiano, as is normal to talk about players with quality like Lewandowski or Neuer, or many other players who are here,” Portugal boss, Fernando Santos said of his captain.

Tags:

Portugal Wales Gareth Bale Cristiano Ronaldo Fernando Santos European Championship Euro 2016 Adrien Silva Chris Coleman ootball

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