Cristiano respects Messi; he respects him a lot. In a way I think they need one another. Each one pushes the other to new heights, to new records of goalscoring. Ronaldo signed for Manchester United in 2003 and played his first international tournament in 2004. Twelve years on he is still the biggest European star. That’s incredible.

Were it not for the other, one of Cristiano or Messi would probably have won the Ballon d’Or eight times, rather than three for one and five for the other. Or perhaps they would not have flown so high without the other pushing them on. As a manager it was a pleasure to be in charge of Ronaldo.

He wanted to play every week and he wanted to score every week. I never went to bed the night before a match worrying about whether he was going to be ready.

Do not write off chances of Italy or Ireland

I keep getting told that Italy have a really hard draw facing Spain in the Euro 2016 second round, in the Stade de France on Monday. My only response is, yes, but Spain have a really tough draw, too. Italy will play to their strengths in defence and close the space between the lines. They do not have the players to dominate possession.