Cristiano Ronaldo has vowed to ignore his critics and let his performances on the pitch do the talking.
Ronaldo faced the brunt of much criticism, after below-par displays in Portugal's first two group games.
The Real Madrid forward, however, came alive in the game against the Netherlands, scoring a double, before another stand out performance in the quarterfinals against the Czech Republic, where he scored the winner.
Ronaldo has almost single-handedly taken Portugal to the semi-finals, where they will face Spain. "The bigger star you become, the greater pressure there is on you to perform at a level acceptable to other people let alone yourself," the 27-year-old said.
"Even Messi has his critics. You can't please everyone. But I don't get angry or frustrated by it.
"I accept it is a part of being a professional footballer, it comes with the territory. It takes a bigger man to ignore it and just get on with playing.
"I don't have an agenda where I set out to appease critics. I just go out and play to the best of my ability."
Ronaldo believes his side are capable of upsetting the applecart against Spain in the semis and even go all the way and win the tournament, while mentioning the lack of pressure on his team might work to their advantage. "We're improving and that's important. There is great unity in our squad, we've a good team spirit and that helps.
"It's been difficult to get this far, but we reach this stage with a great deal of optimism no matter who we face in the semi-final.
"Our objective now is to reach the final. Why not? There's greater pressure on other sides in this tournament and we've been able to progress without excessive expectations."
"No matter what happens now we should all be congratulated."
