Upon a visit to his former side, Club Sport Marítimo, Zenit St Petersburg midfielder Danny stated that Portugal harbour the “quality to win” this summer’s European Championships.
The 32-year-old was able to make a visit to his native Portugal this week in order to watch the conclusion to Maritimo’s Liga NOS campaign, which ended in a 2-1 defeat to Moreirense, due to a season-ending knee injury sustained during Zenit’s 5-2 victory over Spartak Moscow.
Due to the rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament in the right knee, the former Sporting Clube de Portugal man required surgery and was subsequently ruled out of Euro 2016.
According to a discussion with Record this week though, Danny is optimistic about his return and his country’s chances in France.
“I was very sad, it was less than a month the European Championships,” he said. "Now you raise your head and recover well to return.” continued the Venezuelan-born attacker. He went on to state that the operation “went very well” and it could be “a very prolonged recovery of 12 to 14 months”, however, Danny believes that “with willpower, maybe we will get less.”
Danny knows the players believe in a Euro 2016 win
The Portuguese national side qualified for the finals with ease, having lost just once in a qualifying group that included Albania and Denmark amongst others. A recent win over Belgium, who, according to Marc Wilmots, are outsiders to triumph at the 15th edition of the finals alongside Portugal, will have only boosted an already strong belief in the camp.
"I know the players [of Portugal] believe that we can win.” proclaimed Danny, who stated that he is “one of those who also believe that Portugal has quality to win it” before saying that the team “are focused on winning the Euros”.
“We are now getting players with enough quality from the under-21 side and I know that, for some, it will be their last Championships.” Said Zenit’s inspirational captain, who accounted for 14 goals in all competitions this season. “We are super confident as we have another very good generation coming through.”
Portugal manager, Fernando Santos, will announce his final 23-man squad on Tuesday evening.