Ronaldo says ″the air is fresh″ with Roberto Martínez

Forward Cristiano Ronaldo says he is prepared to continue representing Portugal and praises the first days of work with the new coach Roberto Martínez.

On the eve of the start of the qualifying phase for Euro 2024, Cristiano Ronaldo spoke for the first time about the change of coach, with the departure of Fernando Santos and the entry of Roberto Martínez.

“We are very motivated. This is a new chapter, a new cycle, with a new coach. There are different ideas, but the ambition is always the same, that is, to win and represent Portugal at the highest level”, he said, in statements to SportTV.

“I’m always prepared to play for the national team. It’s not one year, not two, not three, it’s 20 years in the national team and for me it’s always a source of pride. I feel useful to continue helping, playing or not. I would give a bad answer , if I said that I’m not here to play, but I’m here to accept the coach’s decisions. We’re here for the national team to raise the name of Portugal as high as possible”, he added

Regarding this Thursday’s game against Liechtenstein, Ronaldo said that Portugal’s idea is “to start winning now and get on the right foot” in qualifying for the European Championship: “There are no easy opponents, football is very evolved, but we can make the game easy if we play our way. It’s a theoretically accessible game, we play at home and that’s very good, but we don’t take it for granted. In the end, we see if things went well or not. We’re positive, the air it’s good, it’s fresh, we’re motivated and that’s the most important thing”.

About the first days of work with Roberto Martínez, there were many compliments. “Training is very dynamic. The manager opens up a lot with us. The staff has a very good mentality. In life, it’s good when there’s a change and I’m very confident that things will go well. It doesn’t happen overnight. the other that things come out. We don’t have a magic wand to start scoring right away. Maybe we’re going to play in a different system, we don’t know yet. It’s giving time, but always with a view that it will be positive”, he said.