“Le Monde” after Eric Renard / Onze / Icon Sport
StoryTop 30 matches that marked the Euro. Until 2021, “Le Monde” has classified the 30 matches that made the legend of the tournament. In 20th position, the qualification of the Portuguese for the semi-final of their Euro after shots on goal passed to posterity.
And suddenly, Ricardo feels the urgent need to take off his gloves. A brutal allergy to leather? A tribute to his handball comrades? Not even. In front of him, the Englishman Darius Vassell puts down his ball, looking worried and taken aback. After seeing David Beckham’s shot in the sky over Lisbon and the Luz stadium on June 24, 2004, Ricardo went to get the ball into the back of the net on the following five shots on goal. Then, a voice orders him to change his routine. “She said to me, ‘Ricardo, you have to do something to change the course of events. You have to stop this penalty to end the suffering of people. ” So I took off my gloves and stopped shooting with my bare hands. “
After “This divine signal”, the Portuguese decides to finish the job in this quarter-final. After all, he also knows how to use his feet. As a teenager, he played as a striker with his Montijo club and spun into cages for big occasions like against Benfica or Sporting.
So he executes this penalty as one must always hit them: hard and flush with the post. Portugal advances to Euro semi-final and Ricardo becomes “The goalkeeper without gloves”. Too bad if he will stop, during the 2006 World Cup, three of the four English attempts with his mittens this time, popular memory has already stopped his image of him.
Unexpected Savior
Seen from Portugal, Ricardo Pereira is the last hero of a heroic evening. In England, his simple first name evokes especially the ghosts of these penalty shootouts almost always fatal to the national team, but also the eternal regrets for a golden generation: the one who sees the Beckhams, Scholes, Gerrard, Lampard, Owen coexist or Rooney.
For eighty minutes, these associated talents dominate their subject and manage the advance goal scored by Michael Owen at the start of the match. But an unexpected first savior leaves the rank and the bench. Attacker with a versatile talent, Helder Postiga has spent the last few months hanging out at Tottenham. The hinge Terry-Campbell forgets his imposing presence and lets him place his head on a center of Simao (1-1).
During the penalty shootout, Postiga will even dare and succeed in a “panenka”, causing in his father, too sensitive, a little heart discomfort – fortunately not serious.
Substitutes’ night
Another replacement lights up the Lisbon night. During this tournament, Rui Costa lost his place in favor of Deco, the Porto brain of José Mourinho and Brazilian by birth. The AC Milan leader has always played fair and handsome, socks down and head held high. At 32, the decline catches up with him but Rui Costa escapes him one last time in overtime. Ball to the feet, it goes up to 110e minute half the field on the tip of the crampons, stops and places a lightning strike under the bar of David James (2-1).
The story could have ended there, as it could have gone no farther than the end of regulation time and this goal denied to Sol Campbell for an unclear error. But forgotten by the defense on a corner, Frank Lampard (this midfielder with address and center-forward statistics) responds to Rui Costa five minutes later (2-2). Of course, everything must converge on this penalty shootout, towards Ricardo and his gloves thrown on the lawn.
After the qualification, the Portuguese wanted to see the providential intervention of Eusebio. For years, the 1966 Golden Ball held a bit of the ambassador, the mascot and the confidant of the Seleçao players in the name of the services rendered to the nation. Did he blow Ricardo’s idea as the pictures seem to show? The person concerned has since denied and said that he had above all advised his elder (who died in 2014) to watch over his fragile heart. The little voice of wisdom.
Find our Top 30 matches that marked the Euro
