Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale React to Portugal Beating Wales at Euro 2016

Cristiano Ronaldo believes his Portugal side can win Euro 2016 after they reached the final in France with a 2-0 last-four victory over Wales on Wednesday.

The Real Madrid superstar netted a brilliant header to open the scoring in Lyon—recreated below by Bleacher Report UK—before setting up Nani for the second.

It will be Ronaldo's second European Championship final, the first coming when Greece beat Portugal in their home tournament back in 2004, and the 31-year-old said he is closing in on achieving a dream, per Radio e Televisao de Portugal (via AS):

"

This is something I've dreamed about right from the start. We knew that we had a long road ahead of us, but we have always been in the fight. We believed from the beginning, even when we were going through quite a complicated moment, but like I always say... you can start badly and end well.

Our coach, these players, the medical department...they all deserve this. We still haven't won anything, but the dream's still alive.

I hope that this time we have something to smile about—or at least if there are tears they are tears of joy. It's a dream, I've always said it, to win something for Portugal. We are a little closer and I think that were going to win.

"

Wednesday's semi-final clash was widely billed as a head-to-head between Ronaldo and Real team-mate Gareth Bale, such as by MailOnline's Pete Jenson.

It was the former Manchester United man who won the individual battle, as he put in a man-of-the-match performance while Welshman Bale was well restricted in the main by Portugal.

After the final whistle, the pair exchanged a few words on the pitch and embraced. Ronaldo later revealed what he said to Bale following Portugal's victory, per Hamish Mackay in the Mirror: "I congratulated them on their run. They had an amazing run. They were the shining star here, the revelation team. I wished them good luck and as for the rest I would rather not say."

Wales advanced to the knockout stages as Group B winners, beating Northern Ireland in the round of 16 and producing a stunning quarter-final upset with a 3-1 win over well-fancied Belgium.

Against Portugal, they could not quite muster the same level of performance as they did in the quarters, and despite reaching half-time level at 0-0, Wales were well beaten in their first major tournament semi-final.

Following the defeat, Bale tweeted his thanks to the excellent Welsh following in France:

The 26-year-old also said Wales would be more respected as a side after their unexpected run to the last four in France, per Goal's Dom Farrell:

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I think we've grown in confidence and grown in stature. We'll be more respected now. We said all along, we don't just want to qualify for this tournament; we want to qualify for major tournaments every time we go into qualifiers.

The hunger's there, the spirit's there. We'll take all the positives and go into the next campaign trying to pull that off again.

We always wanted to test ourselves against the best countries in the world. I think we've done everybody proud, done ourselves proud. We can hold our heads high and give it a right go again.

"

Portugal's opponents on Sunday will be decided when hosts France take on world champions Germany in Marseille on Thursday.

Whichever side makes it through, Portugal will be the underdogs, but Ronaldo could yet achieve his dream if he puts in another talismanic performance.