With a goal in injury time, substitute Francisco Conceição saved the Portuguese team’s record-breaking party in Leipzig on Wednesday evening. On the day that 41-year-old defender Pepe became the oldest player to ever play in a European Championship and Cristiano Ronaldo became the first player to take part in six European Championship finals, the FC Porto striker prevented the co-favourites from getting off to a bad start. The Czechs’ unlucky opponent was central defender Robin Hranac: after taking the lead, he played a key role in Portugal’s 2-1 victory with an own goal and a starring role in the winning goal.
The celebratory mood at the end was reminiscent of the prologue to the game. Ronaldo’s presence had created a level of ecstasy before the match that the five-time world footballer must miss in his golden Saudi Arabian cage. As soon as he stepped onto the pitch to warm up, the crowd that had donned Portuguese national colours for the stadium visit cheered like other people put on tuxedos. The shots he fired during the warm-up were greeted with the long drawn-out “Siiiuuuuuuuu” that he has made his trademark: he has been celebrating goals in this way for years.
Anyone who watched him beyond such antics could not help but notice that Ronaldo was motivated from head to toe right down to the last well-coiffed tip of his hair. This was also evident when he was shown on the stadium screen while the Portuguese anthem was playing: his carotid artery was wider than the Elsterbecken basin behind the Leipzig stadium.
Ronaldo often shoots at goal, but without the explosiveness of earlier days
Ronaldo and his ten teammates faced a Czech team that posed an insoluble enigma. It was not clear whether they bore the Portuguese possession or the rain with greater stoicism. The Czechs buried themselves in their own penalty area without showing the slightest sign of guilt.
The plan worked insofar as they played their part in making the match a first. It was the first game of the European Championship to go half-time without a goal. The Czechs managed to ensure that the most conspicuous Portuguese player in the first half was Nuno Mendes – the left part of the three-man defense – and not one of the famous midfielders. Bernardo Silva, Bruno Fernandes and Vitinha were barely visible. Milan’s attacker Rafael Leão occasionally had a detail ready. But Ronaldo produced shots without demonstrating the explosiveness of earlier days: at one point he hit the ball with his shoulder and not with his head (8th minute), then he was stopped by goalkeeper Jindrich Stanek after a through pass from Bruno Fernandes (32nd minute); at the end of the first 45 minutes he turned around in the penalty area and shot with his weaker left foot at the so-called far post. Stanek was there again.
In the second half, Portugal began to indulge in more than just rhetorical possession. Diogo Dalot and Bernardo Silva tried their luck from distance in the first few minutes, and Ronaldo also tried a free kick from 24 metres in the 58th minute. But then it was Lukas Provod of Slavia Prague who put the Czechs in the lead – with a right-footed shot from 20 metres from a half-right position.
In the end, Portugal was lucky that the winning goal after a foul even counted
But the Czech joy lasted only as long as a well-tapped beer lasts in prudent German pubs: seven minutes. Then the Czechs poured themselves one. After a cross from Vitinha, Nuno Mendes headed the ball towards the line in the six-yard box; Stanek smacked the ball against the shin of Viktoria Pilsen’s central defender Hranac – and thus the own goal for the Portuguese equaliser was complete.
Portugal continued to press on, but with less clarity than the Czechs, who suddenly came to life and attacked in their turn. Tomas Soucek had the best chance, putting the ball wide of the goal from 18 meters (81′). Five minutes before the end, however, there was excitement in the Czech penalty area: the referee annulled a tap-in goal by substitute Diogo Jota because Ronaldo had been offside on the previous header. But then the winning goal came from Conceição: a cross from Neto slipped through Hranac’s legs, Conceição shot in from the six-yard box – and saved the partywhich Ronaldo and Pepe wanted to celebrate. Portugal was lucky that this goal counted: At the beginning of the move, Semedo had been fouled.