UEFA Euro 2020: Ronaldo warned by Lukaku ahead of Belgium-Portugal pre-quarters clash
The UEFA Euro 2020 is into the knockout stage, with the pre-quarters underway from Saturday. Meanwhile, Belgium and Portugal would clash on Sunday, as the former’s Romelu Lukaku has warned the latter’s Cristiano Ronaldo ahead of the high-voltage encounter.
FollowThe 2020 UEFA Euro is starting to get intense as it has entered the knockout stage, beginning with the pre-quarters from Saturday. Meanwhile, Sunday would witness a high-octane clash between Belgium and Portugal.
Ahead of the two giants clashing, the two heavyweight players from the side, Romelu Lukaku (Belgium) and Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) have seemingly engaged in a war of words. The Belgian has fired the opening shot, sending out a warning to the Portuguese.
Lukaku has stated that he is indeed a world-class striker and is looking forward to the meeting against Ronaldo. While the former happens to be his side’s top goal-scorer (63 from 96), Ronaldo is a goal away from becoming the all-time top-scorer in international football.
“At his (Ronaldo’s) age, he continues to shine and I’m going to try and get as close to his achievements as possible. Oh, I need competition. When someone says he’s better than me, I want to transcend him. Ronaldo wants to be the best at everything; Mbappe also wants to win everything,” he said during the pre-match press conference, reports Reuters.
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“I’ve taken a big step. Lewandowski, Benzema and Kane used to be talked about as world-class strikers. For me, those sort of comment was always limited to: ‘He is in shape’. Well, now, I’m world-class, too. That was my personal goal,” he added.
Belgium has been on the top of the FIFA Rankings for the past three years but has failed to win a major trophy, finishing third place during the FIFA World Cup 2018. Nonetheless, Roberto Martínez’s men have been deemed the golden generation of Belgian football and are firm favourites to emerge as European champions this term.
“We were not mature enough at the World Cup against France. We tried too hard to do well and were beaten. Now, we know how to win in many different kinds of ways,” he concluded.
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