England kick off their Euro campaign on Saturday against Russian Federation in Marseille and Ronaldo is relishing the prospect of potentially meeting Roy Hodgson’s side in the knock-out stages.
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The 30-year-old striker, who is heading into his third continental championship, took the armband from Steven Gerrard in August 2014, before England’s Euro 2016 qualifying campaign.
His Spurs’ team-mate Harry Kane was desperate to play on despite being kicked in the head by Portugal’s Bruno Alves in Thursday’s Wembley friendly, with the defender getting a straight red for the foul.
While England face Russia, Wales and Slovakia in Group B, Ronaldo and Co. are set to meet Iceland, Austria and Hungary.
England travel to their training base in Chantilly in northern France today (Monday) for the tournament, with their first game against Russian Federation on Saturday.
And Hodgson admits he has no qualms about his players eschewing the darker arts of the game, with the England manager refusing to coach his team to take advantage of situations and influence officials.
Tottenham’s Kane said it was not in his nature to over-act, an approach which Hodgson agrees with.
“Harry Kane’s first instinct when he didn’t get kicked severely was to carry on and to try and carry on and do something with the ball”.
Hodgson added: “That’s what I’ve been trying to do for four years and will continue to do so”. But I find that cynicism quite a hard thing to coach.
“He is England’s talisman, he’s England’s best player for me, the most experienced player in terms of tournaments”.
“Whether it’s stopping a quick free-kick, or – I’m not saying anything bad about foreign players – but they do it naturally better in terms of staying on the ground a bit longer, and nearly making a decision for the referee which we haven’t been brought up to do”. There will be occasions – and I take the point – when there will be a [possible] penalty but the player stays on his feet and maybe then it will be a very relevant question. “We were unbeaten in the qualifying campaign and I’ve scored a lot of goals since I’ve been captain”, Rooney said.
England defeated Portugal 1-0 at Wembley in their final warm-up match ahead of their Group B opener against Russian Federation in Marseille on Saturday, but Ronaldo was ruled out of the Wembley clash due to his hard work in last Saturday’s Champions League win over Atletico Madrid.
“I won’t be spending my coaching time, teaching players to stay down, feign injury”.
“Everyone says you don’t want to lose the first game, but the difference it can make if you win the first game is huge”.
“You look at Hart, Cahill, Milner, Rooney – they’ve got some good solid players there”.
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“That’s the biggest thing”.
