Ronaldo says Portugal’s World Cup spot is his concern

LONDON - Cristiano Ronaldo says his prime concern now is to see his national team Portugal back on rails for a spot in the World Cup finals and has refused to talk about his future with Manchester United.

On return from Rome after Manchester United lost the Champions League final to Barcelona, Ronaldo disapproved of his teams strategy and performance in the 0-2 loss.

The 24-year-old was philosophical about the loss, but critical of his side’s approach to the game.

“It’s always hard to lose finals but you must pay for not playing well,” he was quoted as saying by the Guardian.

“Man United had only 10 good minutes in the game. After that, we didn’t show up. We, the players, didn’t play well. The tactics was not good either. Everything went wrong.” He also had a swipe at Barcelona, saying the Spanish champions were lucky to be in the final at all.

“We must give credit to Barcelona but they were lucky to be there, because Chelsea deserved to win the semi-final and nobody mentioned that. I must congratulate Barcelona but that’s football, you only talk about those who win.”

Everything went wrong in Rome, he said.

He did not want to talk about his reported shift to Real Madrid and said he did not want to talk about clubs as he would like to focus on his national team.

“My future for now is the national team, we must win to be back on track in the world cup qualifiers,” he said.

“I don’t want to talk about clubs, I want to rest, to go on holidays because I’m very tired. I’ve played many games under a lot of pressure. The future… we’ll see.”

“I’m a player used to great stages and I’m not upset by anything. The things I’ve won give me maturity to stand the pressure. There was no problem.”