Ronaldo bails out Portugal in dramatic encounter

Portugal 3-3 Hungary

Portugal are still alive at Euro 2016... just.

Three times the Seleção fell behind, as Zoltan Gera and Dzudzsak (twice) scored for Hungary, and three times Portugal came back through Nani and captain Cristiano Ronaldo (twice).

The Seleção finish third in Group F and now travel to Lens in north France to play Croatia in the last-16 match.

 

 

On-the-whistle audio report from Lyon:

 

Portugal 3-3 Hungary

There have been plenty of surprise packages in Euro 2016 thus far and Portugal's Group F had two of them in Iceland and Hungary. Surely though, Portugal could get back on track against Hungary?

The media focus was, of course, on Crstiano Ronaldo. His throwing of Correio da Manhã's microhpone had been his best effort of the competition thus far. A lot of the focus was also on Fernando Santos' team selection. Santos reverted his team back to 4-4-2 for this one with André Gomes, William Carvalho, João Moutinho and João Mário. Nani and Cristiano Ronaldo started with Ricardo Quaresma returning to the bench. Ronaldo now jumps ahead of Lillian Thuram and Edwin Van Der Sar as the player with the most appearances in the European Championships. A goal for him, as we all know by now, would be a record for him by becoming the first man to score in 4 different European Championships.

Hungary take the lead

Portugal started the game looking nervous and failed to settle with the Hungarians not content to give up first place in the group. Indeed, the Hungarians took a shock lead through the veteran Zoltán Gera. A Hungary corner was cleared out to the midfielder whose precision shot snuck through a crowd of players and Rui Patrício to open the scoring.

Portugal had to attack Hungary now, with 3rd place qualification only guaranteed if they managed to get a point. They left themselves open to Hungarian counter attacks with Bernd Storck's team looking to exploit the flanks.

It looked like Portugal were going to go into the break 1-0 down but Cristiano Ronaldo found a sharp through ball to Nani. The winger's quick shot went under Gábor Király to lift Portuguese heads.

At half-time both managers made alterations. Fernando Santos brought on Renato Sanches for the ineffective Moutinho whereas Hungary brought on Barnabás Bese for goalscorer Gera who was on a yellow card.

Portugal were immediately pegged back after the first half when Balázs Dzsudzsák's freekick took a wicked deflection that Patrício could do nothing about.

Cristiano Ronaldo finally gets off the mark

The Hungarians had another great chance minutes later and Portugal looked in danger of falling apart. Instead, the moment Portugal had been waiting for so long in this tournament arrived when Cristiano Ronaldo got his goal in the 50th minute.

João Mário found space on the right-hand side, the kind of space he has thrived in this season, and his low cross was magically flicked in by Ronaldo, marking his record-breaking appearance with a record-breaking goal at last.

Just 5 minutes later it was déjà vu for Portugal when it was another Dzsudzsák deflected goal that once put Hungary in the lead for a third time. This time, the Portugal defence was at fault as they failed to get close to the Hungarian on the edge of the area.

Ricardo Quaresma makes an instant impact

The goal forced Fernando Santos into a change with Ricardo Quaresma coming on for André Gomes. The Portugal coach's change was immediately validated when Quaresma's cross from a short corner found the head of Cristiano Ronaldo to make it 3-3.

It was almost another quick response from Hungary when they broke free on the left wing and Ákos Elek hit the post. Another warning for Portugal that for all their possession, Hungary were still very dangerous on the break if they felt like it.

With Iceland vs. Austria level in Paris, Portugal were set to qualify in second place. At this point, Hungary no longer put any intent into attacking and were understandably happy with a draw and achieve an amazing shock first place in the group. Fernando Santos helped Hungary by taking off goalscorer Nani and bringing on Danilo.

With the scores as they were in both games it looked like Portugal would be playing England yet again. Until Iceland, the true shock team of the tournament, grabbed a late, late winner against Austria putting them second in the group.

The players will wonder why Portugal didn't go for the win in the last 10-15 minutes. After the match it looked like Cristiano Ronaldo especially was unhappy with Santos' conservatism.

Third place puts Portugal against the impressive Croatian team. They will still need to improve dramatically but there are signs that they are improving, even it is only in the attacking end of the pitch

by Richard Cole

Hungary XI: Gábor Király; Ádám Lang, Richárd Guzmics, Roland Juhász, Mihály Korhut; Gergő Lovrencsics (Zoltán Stieber, 82'), Ádám Pintér, Ákos Elek, Zoltán Gera (Barnabás Bese, 46'), Balázs Dzsudzsák; Ádám Szalai (Krisztián Németh, 70')

Portugal XI: Rui Patrício; Vieirinha, Ricardo Carvalho, Pepe, Eliseu; André Gomes (Ricardo Quaresma, 61'), William Carvalho, João Moutinho (Renato Sanches, 46'), João Mário; Nani (Danilo Pereira, 80'), Cristiano Ronaldo