UEFA EURO 2016: Portugal’s First Major International Trophy

Draw, Draw, Draw, Extra Time, Penalties, Win, Extra Time.

It doesn’t make good reading, but that’s how Portugal won their first ever major international trophy. After years of trying, finally, Cristiano Ronaldo had his biggest moment.

And yet, he played such a small role as it turned out come the final.

Very early on in the match, Ronaldo was involved with a hard tackle courtesy of Dimitri Payet – injuring the Portuguese mega star. Given the huge occasion, Ronaldo refused to come off and played on, despite his obvious pain.

Two visits to the ground later, and he knew there was no chance he could keep playing. On the biggest stage, the biggest star had to go off halfway through the first half. One of the biggest images that will remain with us was of Ronaldo’s pain knowing he couldn’t continue – although made slightly funnier because of a moth that decided to sit on his face at the same time.

Due to the stadium lights being kept on overnight the day before, moths had absolutely infested the ground – players wafted them away, referees were discomforted, and even ground staff tried brushing them away, but to no avail: this was the final of the moth.

Ronaldo’s sad departure was given a moment of humour when a moth decided to land on his face.

Despite that, it was a hard-fought battle. France were, as expected, pressuring Portugal throughout the match – but the longer it went on, the more Portugal got themselves in to the game. The hero for the Portuguese had to be Rui Patricio – the goalkeeper made numerous incredible saves to prevent France from taking what would’ve been a deserved lead. Try as they might though, the French couldn’t get that all-important goal: even Griezmann would be denied, and Gignac’s last-minute shot which bounced off the post drew a collective groan when replayed in the stadium.

In to extra time, and Portugal had a second manager in Ronaldo, who came back to be on the touchline, barking orders at his teammates, such was his need to win this.

The tide turned on a referee error, though: France conceded a free kick from just outside their box for what Mark Clattenburg believed was a Koscielny handball – although replays clearly showed it was Portugal’s Eder who actually handled it.

The resulting shot saw Guerreiro hit the crossbar, but the following play after gave Eder – the player who handled the ball in the first place – an opportunity to shoot. Despite the way it came about, there’s no denying it was a wonder goal that, with only 11 minutes remaining, put France under immense pressure.

Try as they may, Portugal just got stronger from it, preventing the French from being able to get one back. The final whistle blew, and Portugal’s long wait for their first major trophy came to an end. They were winners, at last.

It’s safe to say Portugal’s championship win will go down in controversy and split opinions for ages: due to the Euro’s new rules on 3rd place teams, Portugal were able to just escape the group stages having drawn against Iceland, Austria and Hungary. On goal difference (+2 compared to Turkey and Albania, and having scored more than Northern Ireland), they got to the knockout stages where, in any other European Championship, they would’ve been eliminated 18 days prior to the final.

History will point out they’re not the first team to finish 3rd in the group stages of a tournament to reach the final: Argentina in the 1990 World Cup and Italy in the 1994 edition both only finished 3rd in their groups, however unlike Portugal they weren’t successful.

They may not have shone, they may not have delighted – but Portugal were determined, despite the continuous setbacks and poor results: Portugal are the European Champions.

Ashley Redman
Professional Moth Swatter