Atletico Madrid ace Simao says Portugal's Euro2008 campaign was hurt by the constant speculation linking Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo with Real Madrid.

Simao said: "It did hurt Cristiano a little. He was focusing on the championship, but every day there was talk of Madrid. The coach (Luiz Felipe Scolari) tried to keep him calm and we spoke a lot with him.

"But I think it hurt him that things didn't work out the way he wanted. As a squad we tried to help him, because we needed him, but in the end we had no luck against Germany."