Cristiano Ronaldo appeared to celebrate in the face of the Czech Republic goalkeeper after Portugal’s late winner.
Francisco Conceicao scored a dramatic winner to seal a 2-1 comeback victory in yet another thrilling Euro 2024 clash.
The 2016 European champions dominated the Group F meeting in Leipzig, but fell behind to a stunning Lukas Provod effort.
An own-goal by defender Robin Hranac levelled the game seven minutes later, before a goal at the death by substitute Conceicao moments after being introduced sealed a dramatic victory.
Footage captured Ronaldo running up to the Czech goalkeeper and fist pumping in his face. Ordinarily in football this is usually the result of gamesmanship that has been going on during the game between players, with the exchanges unheard by fans and television cameras.
It is unclear if there was any needle between the players. Regardless, it was a history making day for the 39-year-old as he appeared at a record sixth European Championship.
Ronaldo already has the most European Championship goals (14) and most appearances (26) to his name.
However, he is not the oldest person to make an appearance at the Euros. That went to his Portugal teammate Pepe, who was 41 and 113 days when he lined-up against the Czechs on Tuesday.
Portugal manager Roberto Martinez hailed his team’s ‘incredible personality’ after the brilliant start.
“It happens in football when a team fights, everything goes well for them,” said Martinez.
“The Czech Republic had a lot of problems controlling the game. They didn’t have that intention, but our game forced them to defend low.”
He continued: “Today it’s not the technical and tactical aspect. Today it’s the resilience we demonstrated. It’s the first time we turned around a result. Today we believed, we showed incredible personality.
“The preparation we had makes sense. I can say that today the 26 players – the 23 on the field – had options to be in the eleven. It’s because the preparation was very good. Players deserve to be here. Today was a group victory, a team victory.”
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News Summary:
- Footage captures Cristiano Ronaldo celebrating Portugal winner in face of Czech Republic goalkeeper
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