Frankfurt, July 1 (IANS) Portugal and Slovenia will be facing off at the Deutsche Bank Park on Monday as both sides will be hoping to progress to the Euro 2024 quarterfinals. The two teams previously met for a friendly in March which Slovenia won 2-0.
Ahead of the highly awaited game, Bruno Fernandes spoke about Cristiano Ronaldo’s importance in the side and how he always puts the team ahead of him.
“For Cristiano Ronaldo, the most important thing is for the team to succeed. For him (passing to Fernandes against Turkey) was the best decision at the moment but if he had taken a shot, we would have had the same result,” said Bruno Fernandes to reporters in the pre-game conference.
Slovenia has been in top notch form, they have only lost one game in the past year which constituted 15 games which was the loss against Denmark in the group stage of the tournament.
Portugal head coach Roberto Martinez spoke on the difficult opposition that lays ahead labeling the game as a ‘do or die’, situation.
“It’s do or die. It’s not easy to play at a Euros but we are prepared. Slovenia are very well organised and competitive and we need to be at our best. This tournament starts now. Portugal is fresh and we’re ready,” said Head Coach Martinez
“We want to win every single game so that means reaching the final and winning the final. No team wants to go home early, least of all Portugal because we are aware of our quality. We had a friendly when they beat us and this needs to put us on our toes. They had a great defence but we need to find solutions,” added Manchester United captain Fernandes.
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