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European champions have made a disappointing start to their Euro 2020 qualifying campaign
Portugal coach Fernando Santos refused to draw a draw against Cristiano Ronaldo's performance in a 0-0 draw against Ukraine on Friday.
Ronaldo made his international comeback as Portugal held its first qualifying match at Euro 2020 in Lisbon.
Santos said that it was useless to discuss the performance of the star of Juventus, insisting that he was focusing on the team as a whole.
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"This is not the solution to not be in Cristiano's head – with Cristiano or without Cristiano," he said at a press conference.
"What matters is that Portugal has not won, the players are not satisfied.
"They obviously have great experience playing in the big clubs, but they are upset, which is obviously normal."
"But now we have to think about the next game, and even with Cristiano or without Cristiano, that's not the reason.
"We have to think about the collective moment of the team and not focus on whether Cristiano should play or not."
Portugal continues its Group B campaign by welcoming Serbia on Monday.
After defeat on Friday, Santos said his team had played well and expected them to be encouraged by the loss to the Serbs.
Serbia has not yet played in the Group B qualifying match, but beat Germany 1-1 in a friendly match last Wednesday.
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Eintracht Frankfurt striker, Luke Jovic, had given the visitors advance to the Volkswagen Arena in Wolfsburg, but Leon Goretzka tied for Germany in the 69th minute.
Despite maintaining a lead for much of the match, Serbia will be confident in the result after Joachim Low has named a strong team.
The captain and goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, forward Timo Werner and versatile defender Joshua Kimich have all started in the first game of Germany since the defeat of Thomas Muller, Mats Hummels and Jerome Boateng.
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