"I think Portugal are one of the favorites to win the World Cup. There can be many favorites, and we are the European champions anyway. Perhaps, we're not the main favorites, but our team is ambitious, we set high goals. We know how to play Spain. Their team is strong, we need to put in a lot of effort to defeat them," Moutinho told journalists.

He added that Portugal were going to do their best to win.

"We'll try to make our fans feel pleased. We'll show our best performance tomorrow, we'll do everything to win," Moutinho said.

Portugal will face 2010 World Cup winners Spain at Sochi's 43,000-seater Fisht Stadium on Friday, before playing Morocco and Iran in their other two Group B matches.