Rooney wants Ron no-show

// A bit of a hack but it works// The article snippet is wrapped onto a second line, even when #article-sub is emptyif( $("div#article-sub").children().length == 0 ) {$("div#article-sub").remove();} England striker Wayne Rooney hopes Portugal and former club colleague Cristiano Ronaldo fail to book a place at the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa. The Portuguese are struggling to qualify for next summer's showpiece event as they sit third in Group 1 ahead of make-or-break meetings with Hungary and Malta.If Carlos Queiroz's side fail, the tournament would be robbed of the skills of Ronaldo, but Manchester United star Rooney - who has already secured a spot at the finals with England - is not overly concerned.Having already eliminated England from Euro 2004, Portugal also knocked the Three Lions out of the last World Cup, with Ronaldo, who is now at Real Madrid after leaving United this summer, controversially involved in a red card for Rooney.Those memories are not forgotten by Rooney, who said: "It would be nice to see Portugal not there because they have knocked us out of the last two tournaments."Obviously when we didn't qualify for Euro 2008, we got a lot of stick. You have banter with your team-mates.Not bothered"But it's important not to go too far because it is an important issue and, to be honest, I am not too bothered whether they are there or not."Rooney, though, does not hold personal malice towards 2008 World Player of the Year Ronaldo, who is a fitness concern for Portugal ahead of the matches against Hungary and Malta"It is clear for everyone, Ronaldo is definitely the best player," said Rooney."He scores goals and I have watched his first few games for Madrid and he seems to have improved again. He is even passing the ball a lot more!"At United, people said he didn't run back. But look at what he did going forward."As a team we realised that if he was as good as that going forward, we had to make up for it by going back. That is what happened and we were very successful, so you can't argue."England play away to Ukraine on Saturday before ending their qualification campaign against Belarus at Wembley on Wednesday.

Source: SKY_Sports