• Euro 2012

Ronaldo brimming with confidence

Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates his goal © PA Photos

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• Match report: Ronaldo the leading man as Portugal reach semis
  

Cristiano Ronaldo is bullish about Portugal's Euro 2012 semi-final chances after they saw off Czech Republic 1-0 in the quarter-finals on Thursday night in Warsaw.

Ronaldo was the star of the show in the meeting with the Czechs as he hit the woodwork twice before scoring the decisive goal via a powerful diving header with 11 minutes remaining.

Portugal will next face either France or Spain - who meet on Saturday - in the last four, and Ronaldo has warned their opponents that Paulo Bento's side are "confident".

Speaking after the win over Czech Republic, he said: "We created many chances and hit the post, but it is brilliant for us to have passed into the semi-finals. We know it is going to be difficult, but we are ready, we are confident. We are very mature, so we are ready for the fight."

Portugal coach Paulo Bento felt his side grew into the game and deserved their place in the semi-finals.

"We did not start the match well in attack for the first 25 minutes, then we showed a great response in the second half, a great capacity to respond to the Czechs and that is why we really deserved this victory,'' Bento told a press conference. "We had prepared ourselves in the best possible way for their strategy.

"We knew they would try to defend very deeply and would press against us on the counter-attack, because they have very quick players who are good technically.

"As the game went on we controlled the match, we played better and had more chances to create our own game.''

Despite Ronaldo grabbing the headlines, Bento was reluctant to single out any individual performances.

"All the players have tasks on the pitch, and Ronaldo played to our tactical system,'' the Portugal coach said. "He has the capacity to play in the penalty area, but also a little deeper.''

Bento maintains his side will be ready for whomever they face in Donetsk next Wednesday night.

"In the semi-finals of a tournament like this, there are always great teams with different characteristics who are well organised with players of great quality,'' he said. "We do not prefer [to play] anybody. It has been a lot of work by us to reach the semi-finals and we will try to recover to reach the pitch in the best condition.

"We will show the response which is necessary. Our aim will be to win against France or Spain. There cannot be any other goal for us.''

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