Spain Must "De-activate" Ronaldo

Spain boss Vicente Del Bosque admits shutting down Cristiano Ronaldo will take on major importance in Wednesday’s 2012 European Championships semifinal against Portugal.

The reigning European and world champions are aiming to clinch a spot in the final but Del Bosque knows Ronaldo, who scored three goals in his country’s past two games, holds the key for their Iberian rivals.

“We have to try to deactivate him,” Del Bosque told reporters ahead of the meeting. “We have to take notice of Ronaldo. He’s an excellent player and it’s logical that there’s so much talk about him.”

Nonetheless, the Spanish boss insisted his side would play their usual brand of football, focussing on their own strengths rather than just shutting down the Real Madrid man.

“We will be ourselves. Of course, we have to pay attention to certain details, but it’s important to play our game and develop our ideas,” he said.

Portugal boss Paulo Bento said his side would try to cause Spain problems but admitted they couldn’t afford to take a defensive approach against the European champions, who won their Round of 16 clash at the 2010 World Cup.

“Our aim is not to defend all of the time. We can’t do this against the reigning world and European champions,” Bento said.

“We are aware it will be difficult but they know we can pose a lot of problems for them.”