Portugal ace Cristiano Ronaldo was pleased with his side's win over the Czech Republic and believes they're now in with a good chance of winning the whole competition


Ronaldo played a big part in all three of his side's goals, racing in with an intelligent run beyond the defence to commit Petr Cech before seeing the ball bounce out to Deco, who could not miss at the second time of asking. He then scored the second just after the hour mark, with his side having been pulled back to 1-1, rifling home from the edge of the area. The third was scored right at the death, with the Czechs fully committed to grabbing an equaliser, Ronaldo dashed onto Deco's pin-point through ball before unselfishly playing in substitute Ricardo Quaresma for a tap-in.




"It's a very good feeling," said Ronaldo after the game. "We have almost reached our aim, which was to get out of this phase and reach the next. I was very happy to help my team-mates win.

"We played really well even though the Czech Republic played very well in the first half and we found it difficult to penetrate their defence. We played as a team and know how to sacrifice everything for the team.

"We have a good chance [to win the competition] but we must respect our opponents who want to win as much as we do."

He dedicated his goal to the Score for Red Cross campaign, a humanitarian project started by UEFA and Red Cross, of which he is the ambassador."My goal goes to the Red Cross which makes me very proud." Every goal not scored in a penalty shootout will result in a €4,000 donation to the campaign.

György Mezey, one of the UEFA Technical Team who awarded Ronaldo Man of the Match, shed light on his decision: "You do not need to explain why he is Man of the Match. He scores goals and sets them up and did very well throughout the game.

"It was a very good game, a football festival played between two very well-prepared teams with fantastic individual performances. In one-v-one situations they were not able to mark Ronaldo, he was always dangerous."

Czech Republic coach Karel Brückner also gave his thoughts on the 23-year-old: "Ronaldo is one of the best players. He is a very dangerous weapon but the Portugal team is not only about Ronaldo. They have other very good players, but Ronaldo might be the best at EURO 2008."