Bento hopes Portugal are competitive even without Ronaldo

DPA/Lisbon

“We have to try to prepare ourselves as well as possible so that at some point when he is not with us we have the chance to remain competitive,” Bento told DPA in an interview in Lisbon in May.

“However, like any team in the world, we will be better when we have a player like Ronaldo,” Bento said.

The 44-year-old coach thinks Germany are the favourites in Portugal’s World Cup group G, which both teams share with Ghana and the United States.

“It is a very balanced group where Germany may be the favourites with their quality, of course, but also with their usual objectives, which entails reaching the decisive stages, as they have done in recent years,” Bento said.

“Then there are two teams (Ghana and the United States) that are very good in terms of collective play, with people from the midfield up with great individual quality, very vertical, very fast players who can create many problems for us,” he said.

However, Bento remains ambitious for his own team.

“It is a difficult group and we need to be at our best to attain the first goal we have: to qualify for the round of 16.”

Beyond that, Bento says, all bets are off, and Portugal will seek “to compete with whatever rivals” they get and go through to the next round.

“I think that there are teams who are much greater favourites than us, but I think we have the ability to compete with them. If you ask me for the favourites, I’d say Spain, Germany, Brazil and Argentina.  Those are the four favourites, in my opinion.”

Portugal are playing Germany in the humid heat of Salvador on June 16, but Bento thinks that will not be decisive, since all teams in the group will be facing similar conditions. In football terms, he thinks his men are in a position to win that match, but he notes that it will not be an all-or-nothing game in any case.

“We are convinced that we can do it,” he said. “It will be better to win it, of course, but winning will not guarantee qualification for us, neither will losing push us out of the World Cup.”

Bento praised Loew and his predecessor as Germany coach, Juergen Klinsmann, who now leads the United States.

“Although they have not won any tournaments, something has changed (in Germany) from 2004 onwards,” he said.

Bento played alongside a young Cristiano Ronaldo at Sporting Lisbon, before Ronaldo left for Manchester United.

“What he already had was a tremendous will to be better everyday. He was very competitive, very ambitious. But logically over the years he has evolved in many aspects,” the coach said.

“He makes better decisions nowadays than he did when he was younger.  Perhaps he now uses individual moves in more opportune moments. And then his leadership skills have grown too,” he added.