Ronaldo ‘cannot be the whole of Portugal’ – Shilton

Portugal’s coach, Fernando Santos, on the other hand, tried to play down their dismal show in the group stage and said that they are ready to play a different game. The 31 year old isn’t considered one of the best players in the world without good reason though and his two goals against Hungary indicated a potential return to form for the Real Madrid man. The knock-out stages of the tournament may always be more tense but with so much at stake they offer much more in the way of entertainment and drama.

The Real Madrid star has more records in his sights as he is just one goal behind French legend Michel Platini’s mark of nine in European Championship finals.

But Shilton said it was unsafe for Portugal to be relying so much on Ronaldo. “Any team we play, we must believe we can win so it doesn’t matter who we will face now”, he said. While Italy, Spain, France and Germany will inevitably see each other before the final, Croatia have the possibility of meeting teams like Switzerland, England and Wales in the next rounds, should they progress beyond this round. Not every team manages to beat Spain.

“These players keep delivering moments that I think they’re not going to top, and they’ve done it again tonight in all fairness”. But if Cristiano Ronaldo has finally broken whatever it was holding him back, and Portugal realize the way to score is not stranding him in the middle to congest their entire game, their terrible start to the tournament can turn into something better, despite the more hard opponent.

However, Croatia certainly aren’t a one-man team, and they’ve been one of the most impressive sides in France so far this summer.

The Croatians’ 2-1 win over Spain earned them first place in Group D and has made plenty stand up and take notice.

Perisic flashed the ball across the goal with a few minutes remaining and then saw a header come back off the foot of the post before Portugal countered and Ronaldo’s shot was parried into the path of Quaresma who scored the decisive goal. The Croats have fond memories of playing in Lens, after beating Jamaica 3-1 in their first match at the 1998 World Cup and current manager Ante Cacic will be looking for the current generation to replicate the country’s previous feat in the French city.

All three youngsters especially Pjaca and Jedvaj perfomed admirably, with Perisic leading the line and Kalinic getting the all important first goal against Spain, cancelling out Morata’s opener. It’s hard to score three times (against Hungary) and not win the match.