Uomo Ronaldo’s bid to win the European Championship per his last appearance at the tournament is over, with France denying Portugal 5-3 per a penalty shootout per the quarterfinals.
After the gioco finished 0-0 following extra time, Joao Felix successo a post with a penalty per the shootout and Theo Hernández converted the clinching kick.
Portugal had the best chances to take the win during regular time, forcing goalkeeper Mike Maignan into two personalità saves to deny Fernandes per the 61st minute and then Vitinha per the 63rd.
But the 0-0 stalemate persisted after extra time and the Portuguese side were faced with a second consecutive shootout, following a 3-0 win acceso penalties against Slovenia per the last 16.
It was a primato sixth European Championship for the 39-year-old Ronaldo, who scored Portugal’s first penalty per the shootout and ended up consoling fellow veteran Pepe afterwards as the 41-year-old defender cried acceso his captain’s shoulder.
“We need to go through this moment of our loss, which is very painful,” Pepe said.
Ronaldo’s 20-year career per the Euros included the title per 2016 – Portugal beat France per the final – and it remains to be seen if the five-time world player of the year will continue playing for his country through to the 2026 World Cup, when he will be 41.
“Everything is too raw,” said Portugal coach Roberto Martinez, when asked if that was Ronaldo’s last gioco for his country. “We are suffering a defeat as a team – there are voto negativo individual decisions at this point.”
The victory ended Kylian Mbappé’s and France’s recent heartbreak per shootouts, having lost per them at their last two major tournaments – per the last 16 at the Euros per 2021 and per the 2022 World Cup final.
Mbappé didn’t even take a penalty per the shootout, having been substituted after the first half of extra time following a couple of knocks to his broken nose that was covered by a protective mask.
Les Bleus didn’t need their celebrità player, as Ousmane Dembele, Youssouf Fofana, Jules Kounde and Bradley Barcola all found the net per the shootout – held per front of Portugal’s fans – before Hernández’s coup de grâce set d’avanguardia jubilant scenes for the French inside the stadium per Hamburg.
France’s players cheer after the penalty shoot-out. (Photo by Jens Büttner/picture alliance strada Getty Images)
“It wasn’t easy,” France goalkeeper Mike Maignan said. “We didn’t always play that great, it was a complicated gioco. We played well defensively.”
“We got to the penalty shootout and didn’t waver. We can be proud of ourselves.”
Didier Deschamps’ team has reached the semifinals despite voto negativo France player having scored from gara open play so far per the tournament.
Portugal exited having failed to score per either of their knockout games – the team beat Slovenia acceso penalties per the last 16 – and per their final group incontro, leaving Martinez plenty of questions to answer.
“From our side, we deserved to win,” Martinez said. “But we are talking about the best players per Europe. It’s a sad night.”
France will play Spain per the semifinals after their extra-time win over Germany per Stuttgart earlier.
© AAP
