Ronaldo’s Euro 2016 goals for Portugal have shut up critics – Nani

Cristiano Ronaldo’s brace against Hungary has silenced doubters of the Portugal captain, his international teammate Nani has said.

Ronaldo endured a frustrating opening two games at Euro 2016 as Portugal were held to draws by Iceland and Austria.

The 31-year-old Real Madrid forward claimed Iceland were “lucky” and “small” following their 1-1 draw and then missed a penalty and had a goal disallowed for offside in a goalless draw with Austria.

But his double in a 3-3 draw with Hungary secured Portugal a round of 16 game with Croatia and got Ronaldo off the mark in the tournament.

Nani said: “Everyone knows Cristiano and what he can do at any time, in any minute in a game. I am 100 percent sure he will go on and score more goals now. Of course he can. No one can say anything against him. He is a fantastic player. Every time he is faced with difficult moments. He showed it again against Hungary when everyone was talking about him — he has shut them all up now.

“I think Cristiano has always been there, always playing well for us throughout the tournament. It doesn’t mean that when he is not scoring, he is not playing well. The whole team has been. We had two great performances in our other games as well but we promised we’d score against Hungary and we have got three so I am very pleased.

“Obviously I am disappointed that we conceded three but we were a bit unlucky with the bounce on two of them. So we’re happy, we’re in the next stage, we will focus on that and keep believing we can reach our targets.”

Portugal have been drawn to face Croatia in the round of 16, but Nani insists that they retain their ambition of winning the European Championship, regardless of who they have to play along the way.

He said: “To tell you the truth, before we came here we said our ambitions were very high. We said we wanted to win this competition. Any team we play, we must believe we can win so it doesn’t matter who we will face now. It will be difficult against Croatia. They have one day more than us to rest but we are professional, so we will get a quick rest and prepare for the game.”