Euro 2016: Reawakened Ronaldo up against a Croatia with teeth

But former Argentina global Maradona – regarded as one of the greatest players of all-time – believes Portugal’s reliance on Ronaldo works against them.

Ronaldo is now just one goal behind France legend Michel Platini’s record of nine in the competition’s finals. Arguably today is the weakest day of Round of 16 action, but all three matches look incredibly even on paper, and as such we could be in for three ultra-competitive games.

His two goals against Hungary increased the Portugal talisman’s already sky-high level of self-belief, according to his coach Fernando Santos.

Ronaldo and his team-mates spent over four hours on their team bus due to Parisian traffic on the eve of the match, having played in sweltering conditions in Lyon on Wednesday. “They achieved a great result, third in the World Cup is not easy, and we will do everything to repeat their success”.

“We know we have not enough time to recover”, he said.

“Croatia had an unbelievable game against Spain”. Ivan Perisic was the hero against Spain, drilling home the victor three minutes from time. It is up to the coach to ascertain how well the players are doing physically and pick the right team.

Both sides have a golden opportunity to land their first major worldwide trophy after landing on the much softer side of an unbalanced draw, avoiding any of the traditional giants Germany, France, Spain, Italy and England. “If we lose the next match this doesn’t mean anything”, Perisic said. They replace Marko Rog and Nikola Kalinic as Croatia reverts to the lineup that started a 2-2 draw with the Czech Republic. The sides last faced each other in a friendly in June 2013 staged in Geneva, Switzerland. They will definitely need their star man, Christiano Ronaldo, to be in form if they are to beat one of the best squads in Croatia’s football history. You have to stop them entering the ground. “We want to come out on top in all of them and go all the way”.