Cristiano Ronaldo retains the support of his Portugal teammates despite his recent troubles, midfielder Bernardo Silva has said as the team prepare for their eighth World Cup in Qatar. “The reality is that when you have a player like Cristiano it’s natural that sometimes you play for him because he can win you the game in the last minutes,” Silva told the FIFA website.
Ronaldo is the top scorer in the history of men’s international football, with 117 goals in 191 games, but his goalscoring form has been dropping lately. He has scored in just one of Portugal’s 10 games in the past year, netting a brace against Switzerland in the Nations League in June, and only three times this season for his club Manchester United where he struggled to get into the starting lineup. .
But Silva, who plays for English champions Manchester City and will be at his second World Cup, said Ronaldo remains central to Portugal’s ambitions. “When you have these kinds of players on your side you have to take advantage of them, although I agree that you cannot become too dependent on them because it can disrupt the dynamics of the team,” he said. . “But, if we are successful, having Cristiano in our squad will be a powerful weapon.”
Portugal have never won the World Cup, with third place in 1966 being their best performance. “Of course I’m thinking about it. It’s every child’s dream. Winning the World Cup, football’s biggest competition, is obviously a dream we all share, but we’ll take it one game at a time. because I think that’s the best way to win any championship, whether it’s for your club or your country,” Silva said.
“Our goal is to be champions but we have to take it slow, game by game. The focus is on our next training, the game, recovery, training again, the next game and so on. Like that, we’ll get there.” Portugal will open their campaign in Qatar on November 24 against Ghana in Group H, which also includes South Korea and Uruguay.
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