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Cristiano Ronaldo rant gave Portugal draw more publicity - Iceland president

Cristiano Ronaldo's postmatch remarks after Portugal's 1-1 Euro 2016 draw with Iceland boosted the result's international news coverage, President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson of Iceland told the Wall Street Journal.

A frustrated Ronaldo criticised both Iceland's approach to the game and reaction to the result, saying that the underdogs had "a small mentality" before adding that "Iceland will not do anything in the competition."

But President Grimsson believes that Ronaldo's reaction has only increased the reach of coverage following Iceland's historic major tournament debut.

"I think we should be grateful for him for having given Iceland that extra dimension of publicity," Grimsson said.

Iceland will play their second game of the tournament against Hungary on Saturday, and attacker Alfred Finnbogason praised the current crop of players from his country in a pre-match interview.

Finnbogason, 27, came off the bench for the final minutes of Iceland's historic draw with Portugal and soon went into the books for blocking a Ronaldo free kick with his hands. But he forgot about it after the final whistle.

"We enjoy this tournament, and are proud to be here -- all of Iceland is dancing right now," Finnbogason told kicker, before adding his take on Ronaldo's criticism of Iceland's mentality.

"That is his opinion. I respect it, but I don't care. We've won a point, and thus we are as strong as they are. We like to be the underdogs."

Hungary could ensure qualification for the knockout stages on Saturday, but Lars Lagerback's side could also make a giant step towards it by taking all three points.

"We will play to win against Hungary," Finnbogason said, and went on to explain Iceland's formula for success.

"We've got a good generation of player, a good shape, a good system. When a new player comes in, he just knows which role he has to play."

ESPN FC's Germany correspondent Stephan Uersfeld contributed to this report

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