Ronaldo Wants Portugal Focused on Good Start Before Talking About Title Hopes

Portugal travels to the United States on Friday and Cristiano Ronaldo said the team should focus on getting off to a good start rather than challenging for a first World Cup title.

The Portuguese are among the favorites for the expanded 48-team tournament and Ronaldo, 41, will play in his sixth World Cup with Argentinian Lionel Messi his biggest rival yet.

“It’s important to have a good start, do well in the first and second matches and then finish first in the group,” Ronaldo told reporters in Portugal before the team left. “Then we go match by match, but not with the expectation of winning them all. It is necessary to progress step by step. The most important thing is a good start.”

Portugal will play their opening match in Group K against Congo in Houston on Wednesday. The team will then face Uzbekistan on June 23, also in Houston, and will complete the group stage against Colombia in Miami on June 27.

Ronaldo said that in the later stages of the tournament “when the going gets tight and the psychological and physical fatigue sets in, we will find out who the real champions are”.

This is Portugal’s ninth World Cup match. The team finished third in 1966 and fourth in 2006, when Ronaldo made his World Cup debut. In 2022, Portugal reached the quarter-finals but lost 1-0 to Morocco.

Ronaldo, who became the European Champion with Portugal in 2016, said that the team’s preparations at home were intense and productive. He said that he felt good physically and that the whole team was ready and hopeful for their first World Cup title.

“It’s a very good generation of players,” said Ronaldo, who currently plays in Saudi Arabia after spending most of his professional career at Real Madrid and Manchester United. “But there are factors we cannot control. The most important thing is that winning or losing depends on many factors. But it is a generation that will make the Portuguese people happy.”