More penalties, this time in the Euros. But Ronaldo makes no mistake!
By Simon Evans, Outside the Box
Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal have their eye on the prize after reaching the semi-finals of Euro 2016 beating Poland 5-3 on penalties on Thursday to set up a last four meeting with Wales or Belgium.
It was hardly a vintage performance from Fernando Santos’s team but the Portuguese are in the semis for the fourth time in the last five tournaments and may be starting to believe that they can finally get the major trophy that has eluded them.
Portugal were beaten finalists on home soil in 2004, suffering a painful loss to shock winners Greece, and were beaten in the semifinals four years ago and in 2000.
Portugal now find themselves in the unusual position of being in the last four despite not having won a game inside the regulation 90 minutes.
They drew all three of their group games and needed a goal late in extra-time to beat Croatia in the round of 16.
The Poland game had ended 1-1 after 90 minutes and with neither of the evidently tired teams able to score in extra-time, it came down to the shoot-out where Portugal keeper Rui Patricio was the hero, diving to save Jakub Blaszczykowski’s spot kick.
Real Madrid start Ronaldo was far from at his best during the game, making little impact on the game and missing a couple of good opportunities, but, unlike his club rival Lionel Messi, he kept his cool in the shoot-out, drilling home his team’s first effort.
Messi of course missed for Argentina in their shoot-out defeat to Chile in the final of the Copa America Centenario in New Jersey on Sunday and promptly announced he was retiring from national team duty.
Poland, who had taken the lead in the second minute through Bayern Munich forward Robert Lewandowski, will regret toning down the tempo after the break and allowing the match to drift towards extra-time instead of continuing to press forward.
The Poles were excellent in the opening half hour with Lewandowski drifting deep, Arkadius Milik a threat down the middle and Kamil Grosicki a threat down the left flank.
Indeed it was Grosicki who created the opening goal when he took advantage of hesitancy from Portugal right back Cedric, burst down the left and fired over a low cross which Lewandowski slotted home, breaking his goal drought in the tournament.
Poland were dominant and it was somewhat against the run of play when, in the 33rd minute, 18-year-old Renato Sanches, who broke Ronaldo’s record of being the youngest player to score for the country in a European championship, pulled Portugal level.
The impressive Sanches combined well with Nani, picking up a clever return back-heel from the former Manchester United forward and his well-struck shot, which took a slight deflection, beat Lukasz Fabianski to equalise.
Perhaps with an eye on eventual extra-time in the heat, both sides took it much slower after half-time and there was little incident – but Ronaldo missed a great chance to win the match in regulation time.
Running on to a lofted ball into the box from substitute Joao Moutinho, Ronaldo completely mis-kicked with the goal at his mercy.
But the forward was able to make up for his embarrassing ‘whiff’ by going first in the shoot-out and confidently striking home and Portugal never blinked during the shoot-out.
After winning the Champions League with Real Madrid last month, Ronaldo has a chance to make this a memorable year – just as Messi, the man he is so often compared to, is suffering from a very rare low moment.
Outside the Box is a Univision soccer blog by Simon Evans a British-born, Miami-based sports journalist who has covered every World Cup since 1998 and has worked across Europe and North America covering football for a number of international media outlets. He was the co-author of the ‘Rough Guide to European Football’ and his work has appeared in the Washington Post, the Guardian, Reuters and many other publications. @sgevans