Ronaldo, Pepe are ‘excellent’ actors, says Iceland coach Lagerback

“We were playing a really good team and the best player in the world, the last 35 minutes were really long after we’d equalised”, said Iceland’s heroic goalkeeper Halldorsson. “They were very pragmatic”. Portugal have been in impressive form under Fernando Santos during the qualifying campaign while Iceland are not only featuring in their first ever major global tournament but it is alos the smallest nation to ever do so.

Iceland stunned many across Europe by qualifying for the tournament in a group containing Turkey, the Czech Republic and also the Netherlands – who missed out on this summer’s championships altogether.

Portugal are the top seed in this group and this team is more than just Ronaldo. “This is another first-time achievement”. The tight style of play served them well in qualifying and will be required against the attacking talents of Portugal.

Ronaldo enjoyed another fruitful season for Real Madrid.

“You can’t put one player down to stop a guy like Ronaldo”. We have to move better between the lines and keep our focus in defence. In the final of the Champions League against Atlético, we saw another performance from someone who could be in Hollywood. It was a lucky night for them.

They will certainly be heavily reliant on Ronaldo – who will pick up his 127th cap on Tuesday – to add to his 58 worldwide goals, while their squad also includes Premier League, and Southampton, duo, Jose Fonte and Cedric Soares.

However, veteran Iceland coach Lars Lagerback, now in his seventh major finals with a third different country, says he has no plans to man-mark Ronaldo. Ronaldo and his team-mates will not take too kindly to Lagerback’s claims, and Iceland may be made to pay.

Portugal face Iceland at Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, Saint Etienne on Tuesday June 14.

Portugal then trumped Norway by a 3-0 result but lost to England.

Iceland almost went ahead inside the opening five minutes, but Rui Patricio produced a double save to deny Gylfi Sigurdsson in quick succession. But the defender still managed to take the ball away from the Real Madrid forward’s feet with a brilliant tackle.

Portugal continued to push forward in search of a victor.

Portugal will kick off as favourites but would be foolish to underestimate their opponents.

It has been quite a while since both these teams faced off against each other.

“We know it will be a hard game [against Iceland]”.