In the 1/8 finals of this European Cup, Portugal and Slovenia exchanged blanks for 120 minutes, and finally eliminated Slovenia 3-0 through a penalty shootout to advance to the quarterfinals. It was a penalty shoot-out in the knockout rounds of this European Championship, and Diogo Costa's three-pronged penalty saver was hard to beat. It is inevitable that the Portuguese national team will advance in this way, and the theme of this campaign may be the tragedy of the twilight of the hero, but fortunately, a new adventurer has emerged in the Five Shields Legion. This time, the veteran was finally taken by the younger brother to lie down and win.
As long as Ronaldo is present, the Portuguese national team's games have always been full of traffic. At the age of 39, Ronaldo started 4 games in a row, and Ronaldo, as the captain, is still burdened with the pressure of public opinion with zero goals so far in this European Cup, and when all his weaknesses in the previous three group games converged, it created a veteran faltering moment. The highlight of the past is also the shadow of today, and Ronaldo will choose to seek stability and pass to B Fei when faced with a single opportunity, which is his performance of serving the old. And as a proprieted and conceited superstar, he has to accept that his incompetence doesn't stop there. This campaign is like a public execution of Ronaldo's "old thing", from the time he was firmly targeted to death by Del Kusic, to the fact that he can no longer jump as high as before when he competes for the header, to his 4 free kicks can no longer replicate the miracle of "flying like a dragon", until his penalty kick was saved by his old rival Oblak, which is the darkest moment of Ronaldo's career.
Therefore, there will be a perfect life trader like Kroos in this world, and there will also be a stubborn fighter like Ronaldo, who is unwilling to echo the truth of retreating bravely. He has a string of glorious records at the European Championships, but he doesn't mind adding two disgraceful strokes to the final page. The extra-time penalty was Cristiano Ronaldo's first non-penalty shoot-out penalty since the FA Cup fourth round against Middlesbrough in February 2022, ending his record of 21 consecutive penalties. This is also the second time Ronaldo has missed a penalty in a non-penalty shoot-out at the European Championships, the first of which was against Austria in the group stage of Euro 2016, making him the first player in the history of the tournament to miss a penalty in a non-penalty shoot-out twice. At the same time, this is the third time in Ronaldo's career that he has missed a penalty in a non-penalty shoot-out at an international competition, thus becoming the first European player to miss three penalties in a non-penalty shoot-out at an international major tournament this century.
In this game, Portugal's Xuan Ming and the two elders tried their best, but they both showed their old feet, after Ronaldo lost the point, Pepe also made a mistake and almost sent the opponent to score a single goal. You know, the Portuguese national team has been crowned the golden generation for some time, and the picture of the little brother we were looking forward to seeing carrying the big brother forward has not appeared for a long time. Maybe every Portuguese player has a heroic march in their ears all the time, but the person who unplugged the headphones to let the melody play was not seat B, not B Fee, not Leao, not Felix, but Diogo Costa standing outside the spotlight.
In the last minute of extra time, Seshko's stunner was denied and he made three consecutive saves in the penalty shootout, becoming the first goalkeeper in the history of the European Championship to save three penalties in a single penalty shootout, and the first goalkeeper not to concede a goal in a single penalty shootout. Diogo Costa equalled the all-time record for goalkeeper penalty shoot-out saves in just one game. Everyone has a chance to be the protagonist, and when the spotlight shines on him, he becomes the only hero of the battle.
No one will criticize Ronaldo and Pepe, who are still dancing hard, because they still have the mission of leadership on their shoulders, and if this Portugal team wants to continue, it needs the courage of coach Martinez to change the formation, and more younger brothers need to step up and lead the veterans. Hopefully, Diogo Costa is just a prelude to Portugal's rebirth, not a chapter before the curtain ends.
(The original address of this article: public account Xiwa Sports)