Football
ESPN staff 8y

Christian Fuchs: Austria will fight hard against Cristiano Ronaldo

Austria defender Christian Fuchs has spoken of the challenge of facing three-time Ballon d'Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo in his side's Euro 2016 fixture against Portugal on Saturday.

Speaking at a news conference, Fuchs -- who was part of Leicester City's Premier League title-winning side last season -- said: "It will be a tough challenge," from his experience of playing against Real Madrid's Ronaldo in the Champions League while at Bundesliga club, Schalke.

"He's the type of player you can never defend against for the whole game. You have to defend as a team. You need to avoid one-on-one situations [and] need to always get two versus one or even more," Fuchs said ahead of Saturday's game.

But on their approach in dealing with the Real Madrid star, Fuchs said: "It's not our way of playing to defend only. We like to play a good game, we like to play football."

Though Fuchs said it is not only Ronaldo who poses a threat to his side's hopes of progressing to the knockout round of the tournament.

He said: "But then you might forget about the other players. This team is not only Ronaldo. Take Ronaldo out the game, the next player can decide the game too"

After losing their opening group game against Hungary, the pressure is now on Austria to get a win if they are to battle on in the contest.

Despite Portugal being the firm favourites to top the group, going into the competition, they had a disappointing start to the tournament drawing 1-1 with Iceland.

Fuchs added: "Now we will fight harder than ever. I think...we will be a different team and we will have a lot of bite."

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