Portugal's visit to Russia for the Confederations Cup is a great gift to numerous local fans of Cristiano Ronaldo. The Real Madrid star is extremely popular in the tournament's host country, as he is just about anywhere on the globe, and a number of Russia supporters came to the Wednesday game against the European champions wearing the shirt of Ronaldo.

The expectations for the Russian national team are so low that fans were not afraid to openly support the opponents. Dima Taranenko caught a lot of attention near the stadium, eager as he was to show everyone his "friend": the life-size, cardboard cutout of Ronaldo.

"We went to Red Square together today, and the police told us to get lost, but I will never abandon Cristiano. He goes everywhere with me," Taranenko bragged and claimed that the "pal" would score the winner. He had a Real shirt on.

"Of course I want Portugal to win", said Aleksandr, a 14-year-old who made the long trip from Kursk, more than 500 kilometres from Moscow, just to see his idol. He was proudly wearing the red shirt with the No. 7, excited in the extreme to see Ronaldo for the first time in his life.

Lyuba tried to be a little bit more patriotic. She left her 1-year-old daughter with the child's grandmother to make a journey to Otkrytie Arena to see her favourite player. She painted a Russian flag on one cheek and the Portuguese flag on another and explained, "I want Cristiano to score as many goals as possible, but it would probably be nice if he nets a hat trick and Russia win 4-3."

Her husband, Aleksandr, disagreed because he didn't want Igor Akinfeev to take any balls from the net.

"We are used to arguing about football," Lyuba smiled. "I support CSKA Moscow and he is a Spartak fan."

There were no such problems between Matvey and Snezhana, as both came to the game in Portugal shirts with Ronaldo's number on the back.

"I've been following Cristiano ever since he was No. 28 at Sporting Lisbon. I immediately knew that he is a very special player, and now he is the greatest in history," Matvey said.

One of the greatest disappointments of Matvey's life had been in May 2008, he said.

"I had a ticket to the Champions League final in Luzhniki to see Ronaldo play with Manchester United against Chelsea. However, I was only 15, and my parents decided that it is not safe. They prevented me from going, and I was heartbroken," Matvey recounted. "However, I witnessed him when Real Madrid came to play CSKA Moscow in the Champions League, and then Portugal played Russia in the World Cup qualifiers in 2012. Today is my third time."

It looked as though every person wearing the Portugal shirt was a passionate Ronaldo fan, but Nikolay Strelkov surprised me.

"I am a Ricardo Quaresma supporter," he said, and showed the name on his red shirt. Strelkov happens to work at the Otkrytie Arena as chief of the legal department. "Spartak owner Leonid Fedun didn't like that I came with that shirt today, but he should be OK. After all, he knows that I support CSKA but didn't fire me."

Strelkov laughed and promised that Portugal are much stronger than Russia.

Sadly for Strelkov, Quaresma was left on the bench for the entire 90 minutes on Wednesday, but he was probably the only person to have noticed. All the fans had come to see Ronaldo, and the first glimpse of the superstar brought a huge roar from the crowd. Many tried to whistle him, thinking that such behaviour might help Russia, but it didn't work. With only eight minutes on the clock, Ronaldo showed that Taranenko had been right, heading home a brilliant Raphael Guerreiro cross.

It proved to be the winner, and the Russian fans of Portugal couldn't have been happier.

"We are thrilled. I support Portugal from the very day they came from two goals down to beat England 3-2 at Euro 2000," said Andrey, a Moscovite accompanied by equally jubilant wife Yulia. "That was such an amazing game, and I fell in love with them. Now that they have the best player in the world in their ranks, it is even more special. I am very proud to have witnessed this win."

Ksenia, though, had to hide her feelings a little. She is a die-hard Real Madrid fan and crazy about Ronaldo, but her mother came to the match in Barcelona shirt and supported Russia.

"I am glad that Ronaldo won," Ksenia said. However, her mother added, "but she is also sad because her national team lost."

Russia fans were not, all things considered, overly distraught. They were pretty happy with the minimal defeat, satisfied that the team showed courage toward the end.

"We should have staged the Confederations Cup in the winter, so that Ronaldo would slip on the ice," one of them joked.

Russia supporters didn't mind that a significant minority of them actually cheered for Ronaldo. After all, he was the reason most of them came to the stadium. They wanted to see one of the biggest-ever stars in action.

Source:
courtesy of ESPNFC

by MICHAEL YOKHIN

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