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Portugal’s defeat against Croatia isn’t expected to change the national team’s high hopes ahead of the Euros, and Manchester United star Bruno Fernandes wants to make sure of that.

The midfielder today spoke at a press conference, and asked his compatriots to continue rooting for them ahead of the international competition. The quotes are relayed by O Jogo.

“The Portuguese people are very passionate about what they do, I see myself a lot in the Portuguese people, we also have enormous drive and passion to be us again in adversity and respond even more strongly,” said Bruno Fernandes.

“Against Croatia it wasn’t anything extraordinary, there’s something to improve on, but it was preparation, we want to win every game, now one more to win, winning gives us another motivation, joy, another smile and we want to have a big smile throughout the competition.”

The Manchester United player also claimed he likes that Portugal are being taken as underdogs, as that will give the squad a chance to prove the critics wrong.

“We don’t think everything is done, there are always aspects to improve. I like this negativity of thinking that the national team isn’t that good, it’s a sign that people expect a lot from the national team and it means that we have the quality to do more, we know that and we have the opportunity to rectify it in this game.”

Following the friendly against Croatia, Portugal still have a game against Ireland as part of their preparation for the Euro 2024. Then in the tournament’s group stage, they’ll be facing Czech Republic, Turkey and Georgia.

Bruno Fernandes is expected to be one of the leaders in this squad. And even though he was recently linked with a move away from Manchester United, those rumours completely disappeared from the Portuguese media in the past few days, while the player is obviously completely focused on winning another international tournament for his country.