Fernando Santos commends Switzerland and Ronaldo and talks about the final

Fernando Santos has been speaking after a memorable evening in Porto, Portugal.

After Portugal overcame Switzerland by a 3-1 scoreline thanks to two late goals from talisman Cristiano Ronaldo, Santos has been quizzed on the 34-year old, the mentality of the team and the mentality of his players.

The genius resolved the game? "The collective genius, that's the thing that resolved the game. In the last ten minutes the team started having more of the ball, going to attack with more quality. It was a tremendous game, two very strong teams. We had nervy moments trying to play direct with the ball and lacked fluidity."

"The Swiss team know how to keep the ball, but our players worked hard and in the end they deserved to win."

"Portugal had the best chances and were deserved victors." 

About the penalty: "This already happened in our last game. These things shake the players concentration a bit. It was a situation for a 2-0 and then we saw ourselves pulled back to 1-1."

"It was important to tell the players to carry on believing inwhat we had planned."

About the final: "You win a final if you play the game. You can't win the final if you're not there. We are there, and there to win."

About his decisions: "We studied the last Swiss games - they played three defenders, as they did today. We are already used to playing against that (the way Switzerland played)." 

"In certain periods of the game, we didn't play too well, we didn't have the ball and weren't calm in possession. We kept playing too quickly, and no team can keep doing that all game. It was necessary to have more of the ball and calm down a bit."

"In the last 10 minutes, Portugal were better. We had the ball, we passed better and the collective creativity and individual quality resolved the game. "

"Switzerland were very strong, always creating problems." 

About Cristiano Ronaldo: "He's been doing this since 2004. It doesn't surprise me at all, it only surprised me when he was 18 years old and I was coaching him at Sporting! I knew he was going to make it to the top.”

"We have to make the most of the quality of the players like this and carry on growing as a team."  

Same system in the final? "We haven't got much time to prepare. Everything has to be done quickly. With the national team sometimes we have no time to change."

On the Pepe injury: "I don't know. I'll have to see what's going on." 

Fernando Santos. Photo author: Анна Нэсси. License link.