After scoring the winning goal for Portugal against Sweden in their 1-0 World Cup qualifying play-off match in Lisbon on Friday night, Cristiano Ronaldo said while the victory was important, he would have liked it to have been bigger.

Ronaldo said that Sweden had only really had one chance in the game, and it would have been good to have taken a bigger lead into the second leg next week.

He added that they would not go to Sweden and defend, but would aim to go and make sure of the result so that Portugal can book their tickets to Brazil.

“It was an important goal and enough to give us the victory. We could have done with one or two more goals, but did not happen.

“We have to be happy with the result and, on Tuesday, we have another battle. We may take to the field with just a minimal advantage, but it’s better than a draw.

“It would have been better to have scored another goal, and now we may have to score in Sweden. We will give it our best and nobody wants to miss being in Brazil. ”

“This is a play-off with two teams that are very balanced,” he said. “We knew it was going to be balanced. Now the team is preparing to win in Sweden. We will not go there to defend the result.

“We had a great chance early in the game. Then Sweden responded with a cross, which was virtually their only chance in 90 minutes.

“Overall, in the second half we were much, much better. We were dominating the whole game, but it was more evident in the second half.

“We created more scoring opportunities to achieve a better result. The players are to be congratulated for what they did, and for the attitude demonstrated.”