Portugal agony over Ronaldo miss
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CRISTIANO Ronaldo missed a penalty and became the target in his native Portugal as the country now fears a Euro 2016 failure.
The superstar’s shot crashed against a post, holding the prolific scorer up in his bid to become the first player to score at four European Championship finals. A second group draw means Portugal could struggle to qualify for the last 16.
“Missed” headlined Portugal’s sports daily Record. “No one misses as much as we do,” said the rival A Bola. “Waste: Ronaldo can’t even score a penalty,” was the headline in the popular Correio da Manha.
Ronaldo still set one new record, making his 128th appearance for Portugal on Saturday to overtake Luis Figo. But the Real Madrid superstar will have bitter memories of the night after missing the 79th-minute spot kick. Austrian goalkeeper Robert Almer went the wrong way, but Ronaldo’s shot came off the post.
“Obviously it was a goal to be the most capped international player, and also to be the national team’s top scorer,” Ronaldo said.
“But obviously I’m a bit sad, because this wasn’t the way I wanted to break this record. The most beautiful way would have been,” he added shaking his head.
“Obviously it wasn’t something we wanted,” he said of the result. “We had a lot of chances and we did well, but we weren’t able to finish.”
The 0-0 draw at the Parc des Princes in Paris leaves Hungary, which gained a point in a 1-1 draw with Iceland, as the surprise Group F leader with a game to play. Austria must win its final match — against Iceland — to avoid going home.
Portugal sought the reasons for the team’s disappointing performances despite having such talented players.
A Bola editor Vitor Serpa said “Cristiano seems to give in too much to the pressure that the international press puts on him, sometimes out of spite for him”.
He added that “They (the critics) say he is vain and arrogant. They say he does not respect his opponent, nor the game. The truth is that Cristiano seems too anxious, and sometimes tired as well. He is human.”
While it was a frustrating night for Ronaldo, Belgium finally clicked after losing its opener to Italy, crushing the Republic of Ireland 3-0 in Group E.
Everton striker Romelu Lukaku scored a classy opener and added a second in Bordeaux while Alex Witsel also netted as Belgium finally showed why some observers have tipped it as an outsider for the title.
In Paris, Portugal coach Fernando Santos refused to say how Ronaldo was feeling after his second disappointing display in the tournament.
“I prefer not to talk about this subject,” Santos said.
At the end of the match, Ronaldo made a fan who ran onto the pitch happy by allowing him to take a selfie before the man was bundled away by security guards.
Portugal needs to beat Hungary in the impressive Stade de Lyon to be sure of qualifying from a group that it had been expected to dominate.
Hungary, playing in its first international tournament since the 1986 World Cup, needed an own goal from Iceland’s Birkir Savarsson in the dying seconds to rescue a 1-1 draw in Marseille.
The result keeps both teams’ hopes alive of a place in the knockout round.
As a 24-team tournament, the top two of all six groups and the four best third-place teams will go through to the last 16.
The third and final round of matches got under way yesterday, with a format that sees both games in a group played simultaneously.
Already qualified for the knockout stages, France needs only a draw with Switzerland to win Group A — a result that would also guarantee qualification for the second-place Swiss. Romania, with one point, was playing Albania, which has zero, in the night’s other game.
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