Ronaldo praised teammate for Portugal's win

Cristiano Ronaldo has praised his Portugal team-mates following the side's 2-1 victory over Netherlands in Kharkiv on Sunday night - a result that sees Portugal through to the quarter-finals.

Having navigated what was considered by many to be the tournament's toughest group, Portugal will now face Czech Republic in Thursday's opening quarter-final and Ronaldo, who found the back of the net twice to inspire a comeback victory, was quick to share the credit post-match.

"The team was spectacular. They should be congratulated," Ronaldo said. "We deserve this passage to the quarter-finals, because we always believed it was possible.

"We only think game to game. Our goal was to get past the first stage. We were able to and now everything is possible. We will have an extremely difficult game against the Czech Republic and both sides will have a 50% chance."

Ronaldo's thoughts were echoed by full-back Joao Pereira, who praised the unity within the camp as they responded well to a tough start.

"We stayed calm and we got through. This was our goal in a very difficult group, when many people doubted us,” Pereira said. “We showed we are a very united team, despite what has come out in the press. We all ran for each other and it showed on the field, where we managed to come back. We were losing, we showed our unity and we turned around the result."

Midfielder Miguel Veloso concurred, saying: "It was a great victory. Once more we showed great organisation and unity of the group. We had to defend and only a great team could come through and turn around the result after the Netherlands had scored. We should be congratulated on this brilliant victory. Once more, all united, we played really well.”

Paulo Bento, the Portuguese coach, was equally impressed with what he witnessed from his side, once more choosing to praise the unity of the group.

"The individual effort of players is not important,'' Bento said. "The issue of the effort players show for their clubs and country we have already talked about so much. We have discussed that enough. I'm proud of what we've done as a team and satisfied that we achieved our aim brilliantly.

"We have a certain kind of style, identity and ideas. The players put that into practice. Today we can talk about brilliance, it was the best game we have played here. We have been loyal to our spirit and that's what we're proud of.''