Manager Fernando Santos will give Europe’s No 1 star until the weekend to join up with the squad and in the meantime he wants his players to prove they can cope if Ronaldo goes missing.
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But Portugal will be without Bale’s club-mate Cristiano Ronaldo, who has been granted time off after winning the Champions League with Real Madrid.
“I know the players, I know what they can bring and we are capable of playing against Russian Federation nearly with two elevens”, said the England manager.
In the Euro 2016 qualifying, Ronaldo scored five of the team’s eleven goals which makes – due to his absence – a shutout very possible The odds that Portugal will not score without Crisriano Ronaldo are 2.10.
“But, anyway, I am also hoping we will go beyond the first three games, and to do that I shall need more than 11 players”. “They have talented players, but we can’t compare the current players to players in the past like Bobby Moore and Bobby Charlton”.
“Ronaldo said he played 4,000 minutes this season, but all my players were exhausted and they have to rest physically and mentally”.
“I feel good. I had an injury towards the end of the season, but came back with still quite a few games to play”.
“Of course he’s very important, like he would be for any other team in the world, but this is a good opportunity to play without him”.
England take on Portugal tomorrow evening in their final warm-up game before the Euros in France and were therefore hard in training earlier today. “They’ve certainly put us to the test”, Hodgson said. England has big ambition.
It is the last chance for Roy Hodgson to run the rule over his squad before they jet off to France looking to end 50 years of major tournament hurt.
‘They have risky players like (Wayne) Rooney and Harry Kane in their attack but we are not testing our defence here.
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Having only made the standby list for the World Cup in Brazil two years ago, he is one of a handful of players set to taste to tournament football for the first time, joining the likes of Harry Kane, Dele Alli, Eric Dier and 18-year-old Marcus Rashford.
