Ronaldo’s Portugal held by Mexico
Kazan (Russia), June 18: Cristiano Ronaldo brushed off speculation about his Real Madrid future although Portugal conceded a late equaliser in a 2-2 draw with Mexico at the Confederations Cup on Sunday.
Ronaldo teed up Ricardo Quaresma to fire Portugal ahead in the first half in Kazan, but the goal was cancelled out before the break by Mexico striker Javier Hernandez’s bullet header.
Cedric Soares restored Portugal’s lead on 86 minutes, but Hector Moreno’s stoppage-time header salvaged a point for Mexico in their Group A opener. In St Petersburg, Russia breathed a sigh of relief on Saturday after their soccer team won the opening match of the Cup and the country demonstrated that one of its most problematic World Cup pitches was fit for international matches.
Russia convincingly beat New Zealand 2-0 at the St Petersburg Stadium in front of 50,251 people, including President Vladimir Putin and Fifa president Gianni Infantino, who addressed the crowd before kickoff.
Putin welcomed fans to what he called a “big football festival” and thanked Infantino and Fifa for the faith they had shown in Russia.
“The fact the leader of the country came to the match is on the one hand an additional positive, but it is also an additional responsibility,” Russia manager Stanislav Cherchesov, whose team face Portugal on Wednesday, told reporters.
“We coped with the task before us,” Cherchesov said.
Although Russia were under pressure to perform well on home soil after slipping to a record low 63rd in Fifa’s world rankings this month, the country faced even more scrutiny over issues off the pitch in the run-up to the twoweek tournament.
The 68,000-seat St Petersburg Stadium will be a flagship venue at the 2018 World Cup and the home of Russian soccer powerhouse Zenit, but its decade-long construction marred by corruption allegations and delays has so far caused more disappointment than satisfaction.