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It was interesting that out of the two teams, Slovenia reached the round of 16 undefeated: they completed the group stage with three draws, while Portugal, who had a chance to win in the final, suffered two successes and one defeat in the last round against Georgia. Both national teams started the match in their strongest line-up, and Cristiano Ronaldo’s was naturally the favorite in the duel.

Immediately in the second minute, a complication arose in front of the goal of the Slovenians, Silva’s pass from the right side was kicked by Drkusic inside the box, and then the resulting corner kick was headed to Pepe Dias, who shot to the right corner. Two minutes later, Vitinha’s free-kick was headed into the middle from the baseline by Pepe, but Oblak lunged and grabbed the ball. In the first minutes, the Slovenians could not free him from their own goal.

But there was much more to this! In the 13th minute, Bernardo Silva cut in from the right wing, turned the ball into the front of the goal, but the pass just missed the head of Ronaldo and the feet of Bruno Fernandes, so it left the field of play on the baseline. The Slovenians could not move out of their own area, they barely possessed the ball.

This was followed by Fernandes’ pass from the right, which Ronaldo would have arrived at, but Drkusic pushed the Portuguese, who was sprawled on the ground, on the verge of regulation, but was not penalized.

In the 31st minute, Oblak easily saved Ronaldo’s close header, who, after a pass from Joao Cancelo, headed in Drkusic’s grasp, but he could not nod with enough force, so the ball became the prey of the Slovenian goalkeeper. The Portuguese were more active again, Rafael Leao dangled from the halfway line, ran down Cerin, and then Drkusic kicked him just before the penalty area – in exchange for a yellow card.

We had to wait until the 39th minute for the first Slovenian corner kick, when Stojanovic did a great triangulation with Sporar, the latter would have shot from slightly to the right, from 13 meters, but Mendes intervened at the last moment. In the end, the corner kick did not lead to a dangerous situation, but the Slovenians had never been so close to the Portuguese goal before. Later, Benjamin Sesko’s long-range shot had to be watched by goalkeeper Costa, but it wasn’t particularly dangerous either. In the extra time of the first half, Leao rolled back in front of Palhinha, who shot from 17 meters to the right, but only hit the base of the right post.

Thus, the first half ended with a scoreless draw – despite the many shots and attempts.

In the continuation, the Portuguese offensives did not stop either, Cancelo immediately slalomed between the defenders on the right wing, then passed to the center, but inaccurately. Bernardo Silva came to the rebound, but he shot into the sky from 14 meters, slightly to the left – although there could have been more. In the 53rd minute, Cancelo was again the protagonist, he tried to break into the penalty area between two defenders, but Cerin pushed the Portuguese defender away.

The resulting free kick was scored by Ronaldo from 22 meters, the shot was powerful, but Oblak didn’t have to throw himself, the ball came right where he was standing, so he punched it into the field. The Portuguese pressure was increasing, Vitinha shot from 13 meters into the exploding defenders, the Slovenian defense was still on its feet.

In the 61st minute, a somewhat unexpected Slovenian situation developed: Sesko dangled the ball around the half-way line, the Portuguese defense relaxed, the Slovenian attacker ran down Pepe, but badly broke the ball from 12 meters and shot near the bottom left. Pepe and the Portuguese national team got away with this.

In the middle of the second half, the Portuguese attacks subsided, and the Slovenian defense stood firmly on its feet. The Slovenian players were extremely combative, entering every duel. In the 68th minute, Ronaldo again fell inside the penalty area against Karnicník, but this time the referee’s whistle remained silent. Later, Ronaldo tried again from a free kick – Stojanovic stepped in for Mendes – but the Portuguese forward shot the ball over the top right corner from 27 meters.

Neither side had any serious scoring opportunities in the final minutes, the end of regular time was not very eventful, it looked very much like extra time would follow. It is not necessarily the case that we could have imagined overtime with this pairing. In the 89th minute, Ronaldo still had a chance, he took Joga’s kick, but Oblak saved the shot from the left corner of the five.

In the 102nd minute, Diogo Joga started in front of the goal, the Slovenian defenders couldn’t even pull him back, then the Portuguese got stuck in Drkusic’s legs inside the penalty area, and the referee pointed to the penalty spot. Cristiano Ronaldo was behind the ball, but Oblak outsmarted him, felt the left corner and saved the penalty. It’s true, Ronaldo didn’t kick this as confidently either, half-high with medium power. And that was the end of the first half of extra time.

In the 115th minute, an amazing situation was missed, Pepe was careless, he left the ball in a careless moment, Sesko jumped out, was face to face with the goalkeeper and shot from 12 meters, but goalkeeper Costa made a brave save. However, the Slovenian bench was almost on the field, it was about to start celebrating… In the end, there was no goal even in extra time, penalty kicks were allowed.

The Portuguese national team will meet France in the quarter-finals – in Hamburg. The Slovenian national team had the most successful performance in its history at the European Championship and was one of the surprise teams of the tournament.

European Football Championship 2024, round of 16:

the further program:

Tuesday

• 18.00: Romania-Netherlands
• 21.00: Austria-Turkey

played on sunday

played on Saturday

Quarter-final matchup:

Friday 18.00: Spain-Germany

Friday 21.00: Portugal-France

Saturday 18.00: Switzerland-England

Saturday 21.00: Romania/Netherlands–Austria/Turkey

(Cover image: Kai Pfaffenbach / Reuters )