The Portuguese were the better side on the night, but the Austrian defense was able to tighten its screws. It was very important to take a point against Portugal.
Advertisement
After his lack of grace against Iceland, where he uncharitably poo-pooed its tactics as too defensive, Austria represented a chance for Ronaldo to redeem himself by letting his feet do the talking.
“I think our moment will come, and it’s right in the next match”. From the resulting corner, the Austrian goalkeeper denied Ronaldo again by neutralising his header. Composed in defence and lightning-quick in attack, the defender should have received an assist for a flawless cross to Ronaldo that was put wide of the goal.
He typified his side’s struggles in Paris, supplementing his missed spot-kick with a chalked-off goal for offside, a close-range header saved by Robert Almer and another two free-kick attempts which added to an already-awkward statistic: he has now had 36 direct free-kick shots in major tournaments for Portugal (World Cup and European Championships). and hasn’t scored with any of them.
Iceland’s Birkir Saevarsson, center, scores an own goal during the Euro 2016 Group F soccer match between Iceland and Hungary at the Velodrome stadium in Marseille, France, Saturday, June 18, 2016.
The minnows Iceland have the lead!
Six minutes before the break he fumbled a corner from Johann Gudmundsson, then tripped Ragnar Sigurdsson while grappling to recover the ball.
The 40-year-old spilled a regulation cross into the box, Aron Gunnarsson went down under a challenge from Tamas Kadar as he tried to reach the loose ball and amidst furious protests from Hungary players, Sigurdsson calmly slotted home from the spot.
Swansea City’s Gylfi Sigurdson, the best player on the Icelandic squad, confidently strode through his shot to put Iceland up 1-0.
Iceland were heartbroken, but nearly stole the win in the final seconds of stoppage time.
Hungary finally got its breakthrough in the match’s waning minutes. Yes, but that makes ideal sense, especially considering that it was facing one of the world’s best players.
With 88 minutes gone, substitute Nemanja Nikolic sent a low ball into the area and the onrushing Savarsson touched the ball into his own net.
There was also trouble from the fans, a running problem at Euro 2016. Both are teams one would reasonably expect to be easy-ish quarry for a predator like Ronaldo. The officials were right to chalk it off with the match ending in a 0-0 draw.
Instead of congratulating a resilient Iceland side on their first ever point in a major tournament, Ronaldo chose to sulk about it and take a swipe at their “small mentality”.
Hailed as potentially tough opponents after an impressive qualifying campaign, Austria, ranked 10th in the world, again failed to live up to expectations after a 2-0 defeat by Hungary in its opener. Romelu Lukaku netted a brace and Axel Witsel scored another in the victory.
Advertisement
Eleven minutes later, Belgium finished its scoring with the third goal of the day. In what was one of the stronger goalkeeping displays of the tournament, Almer denied Portugal several clear chances to preserve a clean sheet and keep his side’s hopes alive.
