Cristiano Ronaldo, Pepe Compared to Hollywood Actors by Iceland's Lars Lagerback

Lars Lagerback, one of Iceland’s two head coaches, has turned up the heat ahead of his team’s clash with Portugal at the UEFA European Championship next week, stating that the nation’s star men Cristiano Ronaldo and Pepe could succeed as Hollywood actors.

The two teams will meet in Nice, France, on Tuesday in what will be Iceland’s first-ever match at a major tournament. But Lagerback clearly isn’t daunted by the prospect of coming up against Portugal’s superstar players and has criticised their histrionics ahead of the contest, per Ed Malyon of the Mirror.

“Portugal has one of the best players in the world, who is also a handy actor,” he said in reference to Ronaldo. “We’ve seen a few good Portuguese movies. In the Champions League final against Atletico [Madrid] we saw another [Pepe] who could be in Hollywood.”

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The Real Madrid pair aren’t the most popular footballers amongst neutral fans. Ronaldo makes no attempts to hide the fact that he has something of an ego, although it’s arguably warranted given the stunning goalscoring numbers he posts every season. Pepe is even less endearing for many, though.

In the clash that Lagerback was referring to, Pepe was spotted on a couple of occasions indulging in playacting as he sought to get an opponent cautioned or red-carded. Commentator Ian Darke was far from impressed with his conduct during the final in Milan:

They’ll both be key to Portugal’s success at the summer’s tournament, though. Pepe may be 33, but he’s still the key component in the nation’s defensive setup. His antics aside, the veteran is a superb leader, a dynamic defender and someone with experience at the highest level.

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Ronaldo will also be a huge threat to the defence of Hungary, Austria and Iceland in the group stages of the competition. He may not have been at full tilt in the final against Atletico, but the 31-year-old is an attacking force to be reckoned with, having excelled in the second half of the season under Los Blancos boss Zinedine Zidane.

As these numbers from Squawka Football illustrate, Ronaldo also possesses a penchant for saving his best for the biggest tournaments:

He’ll also be keen to make amends after a poor World Cup. The Real talisman clearly wasn’t fit when he headed to Brazil on the back of another glorious campaign for his club and the subsequent result was a toothless Portugal side. They need their star man to fire if they're going to stand any chance of making a deep run into the tournament.

They also need Pepe to keep it cool. A lot of attention would have been drawn to his skullduggery in the wake of the Champions League final, and any official in charge of a Portugal game will be well aware of what to expect. If he can shelve the undesirable part of his game and focus squarely on defending, his side will be in much better shape.