RONALDO OPTIMISTIC FOR CL SUCCESS

Cristiano Ronaldo believes that Real Madrid are the favourites in their tie against Lyon, even though the Whites came unstuck against them in the same competition last year. Thankfully things have changed since then (with a new winning mentality instilled by Mourinho) and Real are genuine trophy-contenders.

Speaking after Saturday's match against Levante, Ronaldo was keen not to play down Lyon's abilities.

"It was a tough match in the end but everything went well. We had chances, and now we think about Tuesday, which is a big game.

"We know it will be difficult, but I think that it will be fine. This year we will win, God willing. Last year we were very close, but this time it will be totally different. The coach is very experienced and knows how to win. We will go out there knowing that Lyon are a very difficult team in the Champions League."

"We have to think that they are Barcelona or Milan, because they are a tough opponent and physical. We must have the ambition to win. We want to reach the final at Wembley."

He also chose to distance himself from rumours thta he would rather win personal accolades rather than team-based ones.

"If you win the Champions League you have more chances of winning the Golden Ball. If you say: 'Cristiano, here is the Champions League and the Golden Ball, which do you prefer?'. I'll stick with the Champions League. There are guys here who don't know what it is to win the Champions League. Thank God I won one (with Manchester United) and it's awesome."

Ronaldo is also quietly confident that Real can overcome Barca in the league, though this morning they were back to 5 points behind.

"You have to be in the fight because in football anything can happen," he said. "In the match against Sporting (Gijon), Barca had 70 percent of the possession and scored just one goal, and look how they suffered last night against Athletic (Bilbao).

"This shows that football is very complicated. We can win the league. We know it's difficult, but we were seven points behind, now five and who knows if next week we will be two".