‘This is a very high-quality team’: Czech captain points out Portugal’s favoritism and Ronaldo’s danger

Czech captain Tomas Soucek recalled this Monday that Portugal is one of the favorites to win Euro 2024 football and warned of the danger that Cristiano Ronaldo continues to pose even at 39 years old.

“Portugal are not only favorites to win the group, but also favorites to win the tournament. This is a high level team. They have Ronaldo, the megastar, the great goalscorer, but they also have other great players. players who attack and defend equally well,” Tomas Soucek said at a press conference in Leipzig.

Previewing Tuesday’s Group F first round at Red Bull Arena, the 29-year-old midfielder highlighted the risk Ronaldo still poses to opposition defences, even at the age of 40.

“We know that Ronaldo scores at the slightest gap or at the slightest mistake. This is why we must always be attentive and focused. All it takes is one miss and we know he will score. We must redouble our efforts and do this.” We are doing everything we can to stop him,” the West Ham player said.

Despite the favoritism of the Portuguese, Soucek stressed that the Czech Republic is nevertheless capable of defeating Portugal and recalled that in football “anything is possible”.

“In football, even the worst team has a chance to win. We are confident, we know how to be competitive and every point in this group is important. We want to start well,” he said.

Having played in the English league for five years, always with West Ham, Soucek admitted his experience of playing against Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United), Diogo Jota (Liverpool) and Bernardo Silva (Manchester City) ) brings even more confidence and knowledge to the team. Check of the Republic.

“My teammates know they can count on me to help and bring peace to the team. We all know how they are [jogadores de Portugal] they are playing and this can help us achieve a good result,” said the Czech captain.

Soucek also announced that former Czech footballer Karel Poborský, who scored a historic hat-trick at Euro 1996 to knock Portugal out of the quarter-finals, is in Germany to support his national team.

“I spoke to him [Poborsky] a minute ago. I hope this is our good luck charm, just like it was in 1996. This goal was something like a Panenka penalty. It marked generations. We all remember this goal and still watch this video. Let’s hope tomorrow [na terça-feira] something like this happens,” he concluded.

Portugal make their Euro 2024 debut on Tuesday against the Czech Republic in Leipzig at the Red Bull Arena in a match scheduled for 21:00 local time (20:00 in Lisbon), which will be refereed by Italian Marco Guida.

At Euro 2024, in addition to the Czechs, Portugal will also meet Turkey (on Saturday, in Dortmund) and Georgia (26th place, in Gelsenkirchen) in Group F.