Ronaldo keen to avoid World Cup favourites

The 28-year-old is set to lead Portugal at the tournament after scoring all four goals in his country's 4-2 aggregate victory over Sweden in the UEFA qualifying play-offs.

However, the Real Madrid forward has conceded he would prefer to avoid three teams he believes to be favourites for the tournament when the groups are decided.

"The candidates to win the World Cup are Brazil, Spain and Germany," Ronaldo told Marca. "Ideally it is not a good moment to be drawn with them, but we are not thinking about that just now.

"We will see what the draw presents us with. We are confident, in good shape and we have achieved our objective of getting to Brazil.

"Hopefully we will not be drawn with any of these really strong teams from the start."

Ronaldo has scored 17 goals in 14 La Liga appearances this season for Real, who sit third behind Barcelona and Atletico Madrid.