Portugal 0-0 (3-0) Slovenia
An utterly compelling contest between a Euro 2024 heavyweight and an underdog.
Not that you’d have known it for both nations gave it their all and strained every sinew to win.
Portugal showed their usual grace and touch but lacked a killer finish; Slovenia displayed a determination and doggedness as a unit and threatened on the counter whenever they could.
What it led to was an evening of Euro 2024 highlights in Frankfurt which gave us everything bar goals galore.
Highlights of the game
My colleague predicted Portugal would make light work of Slovenia and so did I – on saying all of that, I expected England to see them off with ease and that contest ended goalless too.
Slovenia had reached this stage with three draws, including one in their opener against Denmark, and the Sbotop Euro 2024 betting odds were naturally stacked in Portugal’s favour against opponents only just inside the top 60 in the FIFA world rankings.
Sure, Portugal may have been stunned in their last Group F game, losing 2-0 to Georgia in Gelsenkirchen, but that hardly mattered as they had rested some key men with qualification already assured.
Head coach Roberto Martinez brought them back for this one with Bruno Fernandes, Ruben Dias, Bernardo Silva and veteran centre-back Pepe all starting, while they were also boosted by the return of winger Rafael Leao from a one-match ban.
Meanwhile Slovenia, who qualified with the lowest points total in the tournament yet remained undefeated, had scraped into the last 16.
Not the sort of team to quicken the pulse, but no mugs either and they also beat the Portuguese 2-0 in a friendly in March.
So here they were for the first ever knockout match at a major tournament.
They also had in their ranks a special goalkeeper in Jan Oblak.
He joined Benfica in 2010 – helping them win the Portuguese treble and reach the Europa League final in his only senior season before leaving for Atletico Madrid – and had a busy night against some familiar faces.
Here he was equal to everything thrown at him, including a wonderful penalty save in extra-time to deny the record-breaking Cristiano Ronaldo from yet another record (he was vying to score in an 11th successive major international tournament).
In truth, justice was done as the spot-kick was wrongly awarded (why does VAR not intervene in instances like this?) and Ronaldo was briefly, inconsolable as he cried tears of disappointment as even he felt the pressure.
There were other chances over 120 minutes.
Joao Palhinha struck a post, Ronaldo was denied twice more by Oblak – once from a rocket of a free-kick – and Benjamin Sesko was stopped by Costa as he ran through following a rare slip-up by veteran defender Pepe.
And so it went to spot-kicks as Costa proved the hero, becoming the first player ever to save three penalty kicks (all in a row too) in the shoot-out from Josip Ilicic, Jure Balkovec and Benjamin Verbic.
To Slovenia, who would never have experienced an occasion like this and had never before contested a penalty shoot-out in a competitive match, sympathy.
To Portugal, whose penalties from Ronaldo (not to be deterred a second time), Fernandes and Silva were superb, success.
Remarkably, they have not lost back-to-back competitive games since Euro 2008.
Key statistics
Portugal have won four of their five penalty shootouts at major tournaments.
Until tonight, Ronaldo had scored his last 24 penalties (including shoot-outs).
Oblak is the first goalkeeper to save a Ronaldo penalty since the Republic of Ireland’s Gavin Bazunu did in a 2-1 World Cup qualifying defeat (Ronaldo scored both) in September 2021.
The 39 year-old is also the oldest player to score a European Championship spot-kick.
Pepe, at 41 years and 126 days, has now broken goalkeeper Peter Shilton’s record as the oldest European player in a major tournament knockout game. Shilton was 40 years and 292 days when he faced Italy at the 1990 World Cup third place play-off.
Slovenia are still to defeat an European opponent in a major tournament.
Portugal have kept a clean sheet in 11 of their 14 competitive matches against Slovenia.
What’s next?
Portugal now play France in the quarter-finals in Hamburg on Friday in a repeat of the Euro 2016 showpiece.
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