Denmark primed to subdue Ronaldo again
Reuters - Tuesday 12 June 2012, 02:00
Denmark are confident they can
continue a good run of results against Portugal and shut down
dangerman Cristiano Ronaldo when the sides meet on Wednesday in
their second Euro 2012 game.
Denmark, surprise joint leaders of Group B, won their
qualifying section ahead of Portugal, largely due to a 2-1 home
victory over them.
"We have closed down Cristiano Ronaldo before and we firmly
believe we can do it again," said defender Simon Kjaer, one of
the Danes' best performers in a surprise 1-0 win over
Netherlands in their opening game at the finals.
"He has got unique individual skills but we have shown
before that we can cope with him as a team and we believe that
we can defeat Portugal again," Kjaer told reporters.
Midfielder Michael Silberbauer man-marked Ronaldo in
Copenhagen and is set to start in place of Simon Poulsen.
Denmark had lost the Euro qualifying away game 3-1 in
Lisbon. They were also in the same qualifying group as Portugal
for the 2010 World Cup, winning one game and drawing the other.
The Danes, the ninth-ranked team in the world, were
initially tipped to go out in the first round of Euro 2012 but
10th-ranked Portugal have lost their way recently and now look
vulnerable.
Although Kjaer bullishly said the Danes had "blown the group
right open", coach Morten Olsen sounded more cautious in the
wake of the 1-0 win over an unusually wasteful Dutch side.
"A bit of euphoria is great but we will keep both feet on
the ground. We have to do better against Portugal because they
are under a lot of pressure now," he said.
Portugal, who lost 1-0 to Germany, have won just one of
their last seven games and scored once in the last four.
"We will try to continue on our path and play well. Let's
work to be a little more efficient and look for the luck we've
been missing in recent games," said coach Paolo Bento.
Although Bento insisted he was happy with the performance
against Germany, he will be under pressure to rework his
misfiring forward line.
Helder Postiga made little impact against Germany as the
lone striker in Portugal's 4-3-3 formation and must be under
threat from young striker Nelson Oliveira, who Bento has tipped
as a player for the future.
Portugal only looked dangerous after Silvestre Varela
replaced midfielder Raul Meireles and pushed further up the
right wing. In his 10 minutes on the field Varela hit the bar
with a cross and forced an excellent save from Manuel Neuer.