Fernando Santos will be expecting a much better showing from his star man Cristiano Ronaldo, with the Real Madrid player being largely anonymous for much of the frustrating 1-1 draw against Iceland, who were playing their first match in their first ever major tournament. The Portugal vs Austria Euro 2016 match will be played in Paris from 12:30 AM IST (Sunday).
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CRISTIANO Ronaldo and Portugal will attempt to reignite their flagging Euro 2016 campaign against Austria on Saturday, while Belgium hope to breathe life into their title bid after a bad start.
But Ronaldo will look to do the talking with his feet at the Parc des Princes this weekend in a crucial encounter with Austria.
“In the very old days, we used to be quite barbaric”, Gudmundsson said, harking back to his country’s Viking heritage.
“So we’ll definitely go for a win”.
Marcel Koller’s side charged through qualifying, dropping just two points, but a second successive loss would all but spell the end for the likes of David Alaba and Marko Arnautovic.
Elsewhere, Iceland will take on Hungary in other Group F match, while Belgium will clash against Republic of Ireland in Group E game.
Following his red card against Hungary, Aleksandar Dragovic will be suspended on Saturday and could be replaced by either Watford’s Sebastian Prodl, or Tottenham’s Kevin Wimmer.
“The group is relaxed, and despite the draw we still feel good”, said Portuguese teenager Renato Sanches, who will team up with Alaba at Bayern next season after sealing a 35 million euro move from Benfica.
“It’s not only when you lose a game that you should be able to deal with pressure well”, he explained. “Nothing has changed because of the win, we have to forget about it and get back down to earth”, said Hungary coach Bernd Storck.
Ronaldo went on a major rant over Iceland’s tactics, stating that they sat deep and did not want to play football but everything will be vindicated should they progress further in the competition.
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“This only gives us motivation and desire because we know that every game will be more hard now”.
