Portugal and Slovenia faced each other in the round of 16 of the European Men’s Football Championship on Monday night: the match ended 0-0 and Portugal won on penalties, thanks in large part to their goalkeeper Diogo Costa, who saved all three penalties taken by Slovenia (in all three cases with three rather exceptional saves). Diogo Costa is 24 years old, plays for Porto and was already Portugal’s starter at the World Cup two years ago; against Slovenia he became the first goalkeeper in the history of the European Championship not to concede a single goal in a match that ended on penalties. Portugal scored all three penalties, winning 3-0.
Diogo Costa was decisive not only in the penalty shootout, but also during the match and in particular in the 115th minute, when with an exceptional save with his left foot he prevented the Slovenian striker Benjamin Sesko from scoring the 1-0 goal. “Diogo Costa is exceptional, I thank him,” said at the end of the match the captain of Portugal, Cristiano Ronaldo, whose evening was decidedly less positive.
With this tournament, Ronaldo became the first player to play in six editions of the European Championship, but in the first four games he has not yet managed to score. Against Slovenia he had a great opportunity to do so in the last minute of the first half of extra time, when the referee awarded a penalty to Portugal. Ronaldo’s shot, however, was saved by Jan Oblak, captain of Slovenia and goalkeeper of Atletico Madrid: after the penalty, in the short interval between the first and second half of extra time, Ronaldo seemed very disconsolate and the cameras filmed him while he was crying.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s tears after missing a penalty (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
When the two teams went to penalties, Ronaldo took the first shot for Portugal and this time scored, later apologizing to his fans for the previous mistake. The Portugal captain will still have at least one more chance to become the first player to score in six different editions of the European Championship, on Friday 5 July at 9 pm against France, in the quarter-finals (goals scored in the final penalty shoot-out of a match are not in fact considered as goals for the scorer, in the statistics).
– Read also: Is Cristiano Ronaldo an asset or a liability for Portugal?
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