Cristiano Ronaldo became the first player to play in six European Championships when Portugal came from behind to defeat the Czech Republic 2-1 in Leipzig at Euro 2024 on Tuesday.
The 39-year-old made his tournament debut in 2004 when Greece defeated host Portugal in the final. He went on to lead his country to victory at Euro 2016, his only major international trophy, despite being substituted in the first half of the final due to an injury.
The Saudi Arabia’s Al-Nassr star, earned his 208th cap last night but was denied the opportunity to score his 15th goal in the tournament. He has already made 26 appearances at the European Championship.
He showed some flashes of quality, but he had a relatively quiet game, though he did hit the post late on with a header that Diogo Jota converted. However, the goal was disallowed by the video assistant referee (VAR) because Ronaldo was slightly offside.
Ronaldo was instrumental in Portugal’s Euro qualifying campaign. He finished as the top scorer with ten goals to lead the team to the tournament.
Portugal’s comeback, Pepe also writes history
Meanwhile, the former Manchester United and Real Madrid forward was not the only Portuguese player who made history on Tuesday. At 41 years and 113 days old, defender Pepe became the oldest player to compete in a European Championship.
Despite Portugal dominating proceedings, Czech Republic scored first, courtesy of Lukáš Provod’s fantastic long-range effort in the 62nd minute.
Moments later, Portugal equalised when Czech Republic goalkeeper Jindřich Staněk failed to deal with a simple cross and parried it against his own defender, with the ball bouncing off Robin Hranáč into the goal.
Substitute Franciso Conceicao scored a late winner in the 92nd minute to secure victory for Portugal.
Ronaldo has scored in all five of the European Championships that he’s played in and is the competition’s record goalscorer with 14 goals. He has the chance to become the oldest goalscorer at the Euros should he score this year.
Portugal will face Turkey in its next match on Saturday before facing Georgia next Wednesday.
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