Having gone from frustration to ecstasy after a historic penalty shootout by goalkeeper Diogo Costa, who made three saves, Portugal overcame Slovenia on Monday in Frankfurt (0-0, 3-0 on penalties) to join France in the quarter-finals of Euro 2024.
After the France-Belgium clash, the Blues will therefore have the right to revenge against the executioner of their dream at home in the Euro-2016 final, eight years after Eder’s winning goal, which remains etched in the memories of millions of French people.
Despite their plethora of players full of excellent ball handlers, Portugal had been warned: at this stage of the competition there are no more “small” nations, only tough opponents. Slovenia, qualified for the last 16 of a major tournament for the first time in its history, was one until the end.
It was only after 120 minutes of superhuman effort that the goalkeeper was in a state of grace, deflecting three attempts from Ilicic, Balkovec and Verbic, while Cristiano Ronaldo, who had burst into tears after missing the penalty that won the game in extra time (105th minute), showed great composure by converting his team’s first shot. Manchester United midfielder Bruno Fernandes and Manchester City midfielder Bernardo Silva did not tremble either.
Ronaldo frustrated then released
Before this epic epilogue, Ronaldo, still in search of the success that had eluded him until now for the first time in his career during a major international tournament, tried hard to be once again the savior of his country. And incidentally the oldest player to score in a Euro, at 39 years old.
But he did not succeed, largely due to a long-heroic Slovenian defense, led by central defender Vanja Drkusic, unsinkable in duels, including in the air, yet one of the strong points of the top scorer in the history of the Seleção (130 goals in 211 matches).
Several times too short to correctly take up the good crosses from Bernardo Silva and Bruno Fernandes (4th, 14th, 31st, 36th) the Al-Nassr striker spent a lot of time claiming fouls from his opponents, without success, the Italian referee Daniele Orsato having decided to let play continue despite several contentious situations.
A sign that his obsession with goals has not weakened, “CR7” wanted to show off his free-kick power, but his four attempts (34th, 38th, 55th, 72nd) either went wide of the target or found Atlético Madrid goalkeeper Jan Oblak in their path, who was still imperious in the 89th minute to push away the cross shot from the former Real Madrid striker, who had finally escaped the Slovenian pincers.
On the Slovenian side, Leipzig striker Benjamin Sesko, a formidable support for his teammates and generous in his efforts, may have had the balls of qualification at the end of his feet, but he completely crushed his attempt with his left after resisting Pepe’s return (62nd), before seeing Diogo Costa save his final opportunity with his foot (115th).
A surprise guest in the knockout phase, Slovenia did not get the reward it could have hoped for after such a performance, but it can easily go out with its head held high, claiming that it held its own – in the game – against two of the greatest nations in world football, England (0-0) and Portugal (0-0).
2024-07-01 21:52:00
#Euro #Portugal #penalties #joins #France
