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Turkey not afraid of Ronaldo

English champion, Champions League winner, and now the EURO 2008 title? Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo could win his third important title in a few weeks' time.

First opponents Turkey stay calm ahead of their first game in group A (Saturday, 20:45 in Geneva), however. "We're not afraid of him", Hamit Altintop insists.

The Bayern midfielder is the only Bundesliga player in his Turkey's squad, Portugal rely on Hugo Almeida (Werder Bremen) and Fernando Meira (VfB Stuttgart).

Scolari: "We're better than 2006"

The focus is on Ronaldo, however, but the Portuguese star had recently got his nerves when he missed penalties in the Champions League against both Barcelona and Chelsea.

Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari insists that the 2004 hosts are not a one-man team. "We're better than 2006. But we have to apply to team spirit. If we don't manage to be a team we'll win nothing."

Turks want revenge

Turkey are out for revenge. They had missed out on the last two major tournaments. At the 2002 World Cup their way ended in the semi-final against Brazil - coached by Scolari back then.

In their last two EUROs the Turks had lost to Portugal twice, now they want more. "The quarter-final would be a success", Altintop says.

Line-ups as expected:

Portugal: 1 Ricardo - 4 Bonsingwa, 15 Pepe, 16 Ricardo Carvalho, 2 Paulo Ferreira - 20 Deco, 8 Petit, 10 Joao Mutinho - 7 Cristiano Ronaldo, 21 Nuno Gomes, 11 Simao

Turkey: 23 Volkan Demirel - 20 Sabri Sarioglu, 4 Gökhan Zan, 2 Servet, 3 Hakan Balta - 7 Mehmet Aurelio - 21 Mevlüt Erdinc, 22 Hamit Altintop, 5 Emre, 17 Tuncay - 8 Nihat

Referee: Herbert Fandel (Germany)

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