{"id":17345,"date":"2026-11-13T21:46:16","date_gmt":"2026-11-13T21:46:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/13\/silva-says-portugal-ready-for-spotlight-without-ronaldo\/"},"modified":"2026-11-13T21:46:16","modified_gmt":"2026-11-13T21:46:16","slug":"silva-says-portugal-ready-for-spotlight-without-ronaldo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/13\/silva-says-portugal-ready-for-spotlight-without-ronaldo\/","title":{"rendered":"Silva says Portugal ready for spotlight without Ronaldo"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.vanguardngr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Bernado-Silva-1024x576.webp\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"Silva says Portugal ready for spotlight without Ronaldo\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.vanguardngr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Bernado-Silva-1024x576.webp 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.vanguardngr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Bernado-Silva-300x169.webp 300w, https:\/\/cdn.vanguardngr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Bernado-Silva-768x432.webp 768w, https:\/\/cdn.vanguardngr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Bernado-Silva-1536x864.webp 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.vanguardngr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Bernado-Silva.webp 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Portugal midfielder Bernardo Silva said Friday his team could cope with any extra pressure on them following Cristiano Ronaldo\u2019s international retirement, ahead of their first match without the superstar forward.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jorge Jesus\u2019s side host Denmark in Braga on Saturday in the Nations League, with a tribute planned for their all-time leading goalscorer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Real Madrid\u2019s Silva, who inherits the captain\u2019s armband from Ronaldo, admitted that the striker had been the main focus for much of the past two decades but backed the team to cope with the pressure in the 41-year-old\u2019s absence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cEveryone knows the weight Cristiano carries. Most people went to the stadium to see Cristiano, many went just for him, and that\u2019s not going to happen now,\u201d Silva told reporters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe national team players are used to the spotlight, the pressure, and the responsibility, as well as being pointed at when things don\u2019t go well \u2014 so that\u2019s not an issue.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Portugal will pay tribute to five-time Ballon d\u2019Or winner Ronaldo before the game against Denmark, with media reporting the squad will walk out wearing number seven jerseys, Ronaldo\u2019s number.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Whether Ronaldo will be present is unknown, after he fell out with veteran coach Jorge Jesus in September.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last week Ronaldo said he was bringing down the curtain on his storied international career.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ronaldo made his debut for Portugal in 2003 and went on to play a world record 234 times for his country, scoring 146 goals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cNobody can forget Cris\u2019s 23 years in the national team and everything he did,\u201d Jesus told reporters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI think (paying tribute) is a brilliant idea to continue to remind us that he is a legend of Portuguese football.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Portugal have already sealed qualification to the quarter-finals of the Nations League, winning all four matches in Group A4.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanguardngr.com\/2026\/11\/silva-says-portugal-ready-for-spotlight-without-ronaldo\/\">Silva says Portugal ready for spotlight without Ronaldo<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanguardngr.com\/\">Vanguard News<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Source: <\/p>\n<div class=\"nSourse\">Vanguard News<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Portugal midfielder Bernardo Silva said Friday his team could cope with any extra pressure on them following Cristiano Ronaldo\u2019s international retirement, ahead of their first match without the superstar forward.&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17345\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}