Ronaldo happy with entry of Portugal in Round of 16

Portugal had to come back from a goal down three times to beat an energetic and impressive Hungary side on Wednesday to book their place in the knockout stages of Euro 2016. Captain Fantastic Cristiano Ronaldo bagged a brace to help drag his side through to the next round courtesy of the new rules on allowing four of the best six third placed teams to proceed.

The Real Madrid star insists that he, his manager and his teammates are all satisfied with how the group stages went, but three games without a win is hardly the kind of sparkling form that’s likely to frighten any other nations that come up against them.

It looked, for all intents and purposes, that Portugal would be meeting old foes England in the next round until Arnór Traustason’s last gasp winner for Iceland against Austria pushed Portugal down to third. It’s now the tiny nation of 330,000 that will play the Three Lions, while Portugal will take on arguably the tournament’s most impressive team - Croatia.

Talking about the Hungary match (thought by many to be Euro 2016’s best game so far...), Ronaldo said this: “It was a crazy game. We were out of the European Championship three times, and we were always chasing the game. It was a difficult game, it was very hot, but the main objective was to go through."

"We qualified in third. Obviously our objective was to win the game and finish first or second if possible, but we've managed our objective, we're through, so we should congratulate ourselves.”

“Now we face a very tough team. I think the odds are 50-50. They have very good players. It's not every team that manages to beat Spain, so we respect them. But we know our strength, we know our worth, and we'll look them in the eyes."

When he leads his team out at the weekend, the Madeira-born superstar will notch up his 18th European Championship experience, a tournament record. And while Croatia will start as favourites, who would bet against CR7 spoiling the party once again?