I just don’t see us rising to the level of Europe/South America without harder qualifying requirements. Beating Germany would be something, but beating Portugal didn’t mean very much. By Ronaldo’s own public admission, they are not a top-tier team.
“On par” with Africa, Oceania, or Asia won’t win a World Cup.
In 2002 Portugal was the Group stage winner beating England and Germany. Early that year they had lost in the Euro Cup semi’s to France on a Pk. In the 2004 Euro Championships, they ran the table on all the favorites until the championship game when Greece played out of their minds and won the Euro Championship 1-0.
Beating Portugal at any time is significant. I don’t know what Ronaldo is talking about. Currently, Portugal is the reigning 2016 Euro Champions, having beaten France 1-0 in the final just last July.