Portugal vs Mexico 2017 Confederation Cup group stage match end in draw

Portugal boss Fernando Santos rued the concession of a late equaliser. Santos nattered about friendly phone calls with a player from his Porto days. In general play he had a point and that is a concern for a Portugal side that needs to show soon that it can accommodate its exceptional young talent. Legal problems? Ronaldo barely gives them a thought, they suggested.

"We saw how unsafe Portuguese counter-attacks can be against Mexico".

"Hector Moreno's goal handed Mexican football a huge result", he said.

"We had enough chances to win the game".

When the man himself emerged for training at Moscow's Spartak stadium, he ignored waiting journalists before giving his teammates a quick nod and starting a ball-juggling exercise.

Prosecutors lodged a complaint at a Spanish court this month in which Ronaldo is accused of defrauding the Spanish treasury of €14.7million in tax owed on image rights.

"34" - GOAL! Portugal 1-0 Mexico. A judge will then decide if there are grounds to charge him with a crime.

Ronaldo had not been bad at all; he created one goal and was involved in another and also hit the bar in the first half. Ronaldo's representatives have denied any wrongdoing.

But Hector Moreno levelled the scores to make it 2-2 with virtually the last touch of the match as the spoils were shared in the two sides' Confederations Cup opener.

One man is happy to talk about Ronaldo - Russia forward Fyodor Smolov.

"My future is the national team", he said.

'It was not the result we wanted, the team had nearly won and we suffered in the last minutes, but this is football, ' said Ronaldo, who is under more scrutiny than usual playing for his country after it emerged on Friday he wants to quit Real Madrid and leave Spain as a result of an investigation into his tax affairs.

The Krasnodar striker said: "It's very hard to build a team when you have such an individual among you as everything revolves around him".

Then in 2012 Russian Federation won a World Cup qualifier 1-0 against Portugal and ran out winners by the same slender scoreline in a friendly in 2015.

Fedor Smolov got off the mark in the first game and will take heart from the fact that Portugal's defence has never been their strong point.

"It's going to be a tough game against the European champions, plus Ronaldo".