(CNN)After a morning in which he threw a reporter’s microphone into a lake, Cristiano Ronaldo made another big splash at Euro 2016 by firing Portugal into the European Championship’s knockout stages.
Advertisement
In footage shown on sport website www.sport-english.com, the Real Madrid star and his global team-mates are seen strolling alongside the river when the journalist approaches him.
Earlier in the tournament, Ronaldo moaned about Iceland’s “small mentality” after playing out a largely defensive 1-1 draw.
Italy who haven’t lost a match in the tournament lost their first to Ireland with a lone goal from Robert Brady in the 85th minute.
Cristiano Ronaldo has praised the resilience of his Portugal team after they scraped into the last-16 by the skin of their teeth – but his love/hate relationship with the media continues.
As expected of the quality of his talent, the Portuguese captain rose to the occasion to bring his team back into the game twice – and ultimately help his country earn a 3-3 draw against Hungary in their Group F match. The goal fest dried up and Portugal was through to the round of 16, its reward a tough game against Croatia.
Ronaldo, 31, registered his record 17th appearance at a European Championship when Portugal-Hungary kicked off. Ronaldo made his Euro debut on home soil in 2004, and has since participated in Euros 2008, 2012 and 2016. We know their strengths.
Iceland’s Kari Arnason, man of the match in the 2-1 win over Austria, counts Plymouth, Aberdeen and Rotherham among his former clubs, and said he had previously cheered the Three Lions at major competitions. “We qualified in third; obviously our objective was to win the game and finish first or second if possible, but we’ve managed our objective, we’re through, that was our objective, so we should congratulate ourselves”.
On Sunday, I was one of the first up and he was already awake.
Hungary will now play the Group E runners-up, which will be decided later on Wednesday between Belgium, Sweden and Ireland, while Iceland will face England.
“It was an insane match”, said the three-time World Player of the Year.
When then asked a question by Harris, Ronaldo – who had been named man of the match, responded: “I decide nothing”. “I am happy because the team was in dire straits”. The bottom line was we wanted to qualify.
Advertisement
Storck, however, said that the fully-fit stalwart was not even supposed to feature in the high-octane clash.
