Cristiano Ronaldo’s journey in the 2024 European Championship (Euro 2024) has ended in the quarter-final stage thanks to France’s victory over Portugal.
Earlier today, July 5, Portugal and France met at the Volksparkstadion for their Euro 2024 quarter-final clash. The game failed to live up to the expectations as the two sides failed to take advantage of their few chances.
Cristiano Ronaldo who had earlier announced that the Euro 2024 was the last of his career, was completely isolated in the game against France. He was more or less a short one especially in the second half of the encounter as his teammates found it difficult to connect with him in attack.
He anticipated passes that never came and crosses that didn’t connect throughout the regulation time and the 30 minutes of extra time. Despite his low output in the game, coach Roberto Martínez decided to keep him on the pitch.
On the other hand, Kylian Mbappe had a dreadful game as he continued to struggle to give his best behind his mask.
Unlike Ronaldo who stayed on the pitch despite his low output, coach Didier Deschamps substituted Mbappe in extra time after he received a fresh knock on his injured nose.
In his absence, France was able to hold Portugal to a barren draw in 120 minutes of football. Hence, the game was decided via penalties.
As expected, Cristiano Ronaldo opened the shootout for Portugal and converted it as clinically as possible. Everything was going smoothly for both sides in the shootout until João Félix took his spot-kick and slammed the ball on the sidebar.
With that miss, France beat Portugal 5-3 via penalties and booked themselves a date with Spain in the Euro 2024 semi-finals.
