A trio of Portuguese stars have declared that the Selecção das Quinas are in with a great chance of winning Euro 2008 after securing qualification last night...
Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo (pictured) has named Portugal as one of the favourites for the Euro 2008 crown.
The 2004 hosts secured qualification for the Austria-Switzerland tournament last night after drawing 0-0 at home to Finland, with the attacking midfielder in mixed moods after the game.
He told PortuGOAL.net, "All our players should have ambition to lift trophies. I think we can win the European Championships. We have great players, a great structure and we have to think positive. We’re going to be at our best in the finals."
However, he seemed to indicate that the pressure of the fanbase was beginning to play a major role in the dynamics of the team, who failed to score in Porto.
"This team is at the level we have accustomed the public to over recent years," he began.
"We have achieved a lot of great things. Now, whenever things go wrong people start criticising straight away, but we have to get used to that. But I think in one way this is positive."
Atletico Madrid midfielder Maniche added, "We had some tough times this campaign but we’ve managed to get through it.
"Nowadays, there are no easy games. We did not have one single simple game in this qualification. But today we played well, helped each other and the only thing lacking was a goal.
"Some young players are coming into the team that have a lot of quality. They’ve shown it at club level and now they are showing it for the national team."
Real Madrid defender Pepe then concluded, "I’m delighted. I’m very happy with the way I was received by the fans and would like to thank the support of the crowd.
"It was a game in which we suffered a little, but that makes it all the more satisfying [to qualify]. But we deserved to win this match.
"This squad is fantastic and we deserve congratulations.
"Can we be champions? I believe so; we have very good players who respected all around Europe."
Portugal lost out in the 2004 final against Greece.
I agree, they are certainly one of the favourites, the finals in Euro 2004 and semi finalist in 2006, they have really improved over the years and are now one of the big football nations who are one of the favourites for every tournament.
I agree about fans/media/press ect expectations, when you lift expecations so high it's hard to make people happy because of the expectaincy, but in a way that's good because people expect alot (maybe too much) which is nice.
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