FIFA World Cup 2018: Portugal target last 16 berth as they take on Iran

Cristiano Ronaldo will look to fire his country into the last 16 of the World Cup tomorrow at the expense of former Portugal coach Carlos Queiroz and Iran Ronaldo and Queiroz are both appearing at their fourth World Cup as player and coach respectively and their relationship dates back to the Portugal captains arrival as a teenager at Manchester United in 2003The 65yearold served as Alex Fergusons assistant over two spells either side of a brief stint in charge of Real Madrid the club Ronaldo joined in 2009 in a deal Queiroz helped facilitate But their relationship soured following a secondround exit to Spain at the 2010 World Cup after which Ronaldo suggested Queiroz was to blame for the defeatPortugal then crashed out in the group stage four years ago in Brazil but Ronaldo is singlehandedly leading their quest in Russia with all four of his teams goals so far Our expectation is to continue our work and try to improve in the group phase Ronaldo said after his early strike over Morocco left Portugal level on four points with Spain at the top of Group BWere almost there knockout stages and then well see Ronaldo is level with Belgium striker Romelu Lukaku in the race for the golden boot leaving eternal rival Lionel Messi in the dust as Argentina scrap to stay in the competition Portugal coach Fernando Santos compared his talisman to a bottle of Port wine marvelling at the 33yearolds ability to refine his game with ageAtletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone the former Argentina midfielder even indicated he would prefer to have Ronaldo rather than Messi in his team Messi is very good but it is clear that he is very good because he is surrounded by extraordinary players at Barcelona Simeone said in an audio recording published by Spanish media outletsThe question I ask is if you have to choose between Messi and Ronaldo in a normal team who would you choose Portugal defender Pepe a longtime teammate of Ronaldos at Real said it was a privilege for the country to have a player such as the fivetime Ballon dOr winnerHe is getting better every year Manchester City winger Bernardo Silva opined after Ronaldos hattrick in an opening 33 draw with Spain People were waiting for him to get old and play worse but he is only improving Ronaldo scored a late penalty to seal a 20 win over Iran when the two sides last met at the 2006 World Cup and Portugal will hope for further inspiration from the second highest goalscorer in international historyThe European champions could be without midfielder Joao Moutinho after he sat out training again Saturday due to illness although leftback Raphael Guerreiro is expected to shake off a leg problem Portugal need a draw to be sure of a place in the knockout phase with either hosts Russia or Uruguay awaiting them in the next round should they advanceWe have the level to do well We believe in what were doing and weve had a pretty good start to this competition but there is room for improvement added centreback Jose Fonte Iran who beat Morocco 10 before falling to Spain by the same scoreline must beat Portugal to reach the latter stages of the World Cup for the first timeQueiroz who also took South Africa to the 2002 finals called it the most interesting and important match in my seven years with Iran We will keep on working for our dreams and our dream is to try and qualify for the second round he said after Wednesdays loss to Spain We know it will be difficult but as I said before we came here and didnt expect easy things Against Portugal it will be match point for usAlso Read FIFA World Cup 2018 Cristiano Ronaldo Delivers As Portugal Beat Morocco 10Catch up on all the latest sports news and updates here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updatesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Except for the change in headline the story has been provided ASIS AS AVAILABLE without any verification or editing from our side Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever