Ronaldo very optimistic about Portugal's World Cup chances
Sports
Ronaldo believes Portugal have excellent players and they are capable of doing well in the World Cup
DOHA (Reuters) - Portugal forward Cristiano Ronaldo believes his country has an excellent group of players and they are capable of doing well in the World Cup in Qatar.
Ronaldo said he had dreamt of wining the World Cup, but knows it will be extremely difficult to lift the trophy with teams like France, Spain, Argentina, Germany and Brazil to face.
"I am very optimistic. We have a fantastic coach, we have a good generation of football players. I m looking forward that we re going to an amazing World Cup," Ronaldo told Piers Morgan for TalkTV.
"It s gonna be tough. Extremely difficult. But everything is possible, of course we re gonna compete."
The 37-year-old added that Qatar would probably be his last World Cup as he plans to retire at 40.
"I want to play two, three more years maximum. I want to finish with 40, it will be a good age. But I don t know. Sometimes you plan one thing for your life and as I told many times, life is dynamic," Ronaldo said.
Portugal s captain also talked about Argentina s Lionel Messi, describing him as "magic, top and like a team mate" after sharing the global stage with him for 16 years.
Fernandes double as Portugal warm up with big win over Nigeria
Bruno Fernandes scored twice in the first half and debutant Goncalo Ramos and Joao Mario added late goals as Portugal crushed Nigeria 4-0 in a World Cup warm-up in Lisbon on Thursday.
Missing Cristiano Ronaldo due to a stomach bug, his Manchester United team mate Fernandes led a strong Portugal side in their last match before travelling to Doha on Friday.
"It was a win that give us great confidence ahead of our debut against Ghana.
"We are a team, it is not about individuals and we have a great group, young players that are up and coming and hungry. We are ready to the World Cup."
Coach Fernando Santos made six substitutions in the second half and Ramos scored Portugal s third immediately after Portugal goalkeeper saved a penalty from Emmanuel Dennis after the VAR spotted Dalot s foul in the 81st minute.
Ramos took a short pass from Raphael Guerreiro in his stride and unleashed a powerful shot low into the middle of the goal.
Joao Mario closed out the victory with a strike into the bottom corner to the delight of around 45,000 fans in the stadium.
Portugal are in World Cup Group H with Ghana, Uruguay and South Korea.
