Cristiano Ronaldo breaks another record as Portugal come from behind to stun Czech Republic at Euro 2024
By Ben Church, CNN
(CNN) — Cristiano Ronaldo made history by becoming the first player to feature in six European Championships as Portugal came from behind to beat Czech Republic 2-1 in Leipzig at Euro 2024 on Tuesday.
The 39-year-old made his tournament debut back in 2004, when host Portugal was beaten by Greece in the final. He went on to lead his nation to victory at Euro 2016, his only major trophy at international level, though he had to be substituted in the first half of the final after picking up an injury.
Despite currently playing outside of Europe’s main top-five leagues – he’s now with Saudi Arabian club Al-Nassr – Ronaldo was picked by Portugal coach Roberto Martinez who praised the veteran striker for his goalscoring prowess before the tournament started.
The forward started his country’s opening Group F match against Czech Republic but, despite some flashes of quality, he had a relatively quiet game, though he did hit the post late on with a header, which was then turned in by Diogo Jota. However, the goal was ruled out by the video assistant referee (VAR) as Ronaldo was narrowly offside.
But Portugal kept searching for a winner and substitute Francisco Conceição scored a dramatic late winner in the 92nd minute, tapping home from close range.
Despite Portugal dominating proceedings, it was Czech Republic which scored first, courtesy of Lukáš Provod’s fantastic long-range effort in the 62nd minute.
Moments later, Portugal equalized thanks to a huge slice of luck. Czech Republic goalkeeper Jindřich Staněk failed to deal with a simple cross and parried it against his own defender, with the ball bouncing off Robin Hranáč into the goal.
Ronaldo has scored in all five of the European Championships that he’s played in and is the competition’s record goalscorer with 14 goals. He has the chance to become the oldest goalscorer at the Euros should he find the net in Germany this year.
Ronaldo wasn’t the only Portuguese player to make history on Tuesday. At 41 and 113 days, defender Pepe became the oldest player to feature at a European Championships.
Portugal will face Turkey in its next match on Saturday before facing Georgia next Wednesday.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
