Portugal rallied from behind to secure a late 2-1 victory over Czech Republic in their 2024 European Championship opener on Tuesday night.
EURO 2024
Result: Portugal 2-1 Czech Republic
Date: 18 June 2024
Venue: Leipzig Stadium
Ronaldo kept his spot in the line-up and became the first player to compete at six European Championship tournaments, 20 years on from his tournament debut.
The Portuguese dominated proceedings from the onset and were camped in the Czech Republic half pushing for the opening goal, with Rafael Leao and Bruno Fernandes seeing a lot of the ball.
The 2016 champions had a big chance to take the lead on 31 minutes when Ronaldo latched onto a superb pass from Fernandes, but the captain was denied by a fine save from goalkeeper Jindrich Stanek.
It was one-way traffic for the entire opening 45 minutes and Czech Republic had Stanek to thank for keeping the scores level as he produced another just before the break to keep out Ronaldo's left-footed effort.
For all of Portugal's dominance, it was Czech Republic who broke the deadlock on 62 minutes when Luka Provod found the back of the net with a superb strike from just outside the box.
The lead did not last too long as Portugal were back on level terms six minutes later when Stanek parried the ball into teammate Robin Hranac, who was unable to stop the ball from going into his own net.
Portugal thought they had completed the turnaround with four minutes to play as substitute Diogo Jota nodded home from close range, but the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) spotted an offside from Ronaldo in the build-up.
Martinez's charges, however, got the winning goal in the 91st minute another two substitutes combined when Pedro Neto won the ball back and put a cross into the box for Francisco Conceicao, who rifled home from close range.
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