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Porto (Portugal) (AFP)
Cristiano Ronaldo has ended his international exile to embody Portugal's hopes of winning the first Nations League on his home soil this week, but he is gone since he was the only man to fear for the champions of Africa. 39; Europe.
Winner of the Golden Ball and the Champions League five times, which handed the league titles to his clubs in England, Spain and Italy, Ronaldo has little to prove.
But after his teenage tears while he was losing a home finals in Euro 2004, Ronaldo can avenge this defeat by winning the second international trophy of his career before a Portuguese crowd in adoration.
"We have the privilege of having the best player in the world, who is a scoring machine," said Portuguese defender Pepe, who has spent many seasons alongside Ronaldo at Real Madrid.
"Cristiano is our leader and it's always best to have the best player in the world with us," added veteran center-back Jose Fonte.
Portugal, however, qualified for the last four of the first League of Nations without its scorer of all time.
Ronaldo took a break from international football after the World Cup and returned only for the first two qualifying matches of Portugal for Euro 2020 in March.
His return did not go as planned as Fernando Santos' men were held home by Ukraine and Serbia, while the Juventus striker was injured just 30 minutes. minutes after the start of the second day.
In his absence, Bernardo Silva took center stage with Manchester City midfielder, who was greeted by club boss Pep Guardiola as the outstanding player in the Premier League this season, also becoming the main player. creative force of his country.
The city may soon have another Portuguese star with the English champions among a host of clubs in pursuit of Joao Felix.
The 19-year-old is in the crosshairs for his international semifinal debut on Wednesday against Switzerland after an outstanding season with Benfica.
Felix scored 20 goals in all competitions, including a hat-trick in the quarter-finals of the Europa League against Eintracht Frankfurt. Benfica fears that its € 120 million purchase clause will be activated this summer.
That would make him the most expensive Portuguese player of all time, even ahead of Ronaldo, but Felix admitted to being the star in his first days of training, alongside the five-time world player of the year .
"It was weird, I had never seen him live so close to me," Felix told the Benfica website. "Later, when I got home, I told my colleagues and my best friends that everything was happening as if it was in career mode on PlayStation."
Switzerland does not have the same star power, although Xherdan Shaqiri arrives in Porto as the newly crowned European champion at club level with Liverpool.
However, Vladimir Petkovic's men have shown their ability to create a huge surprise just to qualify for the last four.
Wishing to beat the first place in the world rankings, Belgium, by two goals in their last group game of the League of Nations, Switzerland led 2-0 before returning for a thrilling 5-2 win.
? AFP 2019
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