Ronaldo expressed his delight after the match, saying: “I’m so happy – very happy”. “Nobody believed in Portugal, but we won”.
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An unlikely scorer secured the pretournament outsiders a title at last.
That was substitute Eder who came on in the final 10-minutes of normal time, victor it in extra time.
“The ugly duckling became lovely”, Portugal coach Fernando Santos said.
Even on his 52th global appearance, and at his fourth major tournament, he is one of the most under-appreciated top goalkeepers in Europe.
“[Ronaldo] told me I would score the winning goal for the team”, he told O Jogo, the Portuguese newspaper. “He gave me this strength, this energy and it was vital”.
“Football can be very cruel”, said Lloris, France’s captain. “The overriding emotion is a lot of sadness”.
“I will need time to digest everything, the players are going to start again at their clubs”.
Though he only played 25 minutes of the game, Cristiano Ronaldo was inevitably the talking point of the Euro 2016 final on Sunday.
Sunday, Portugal defeated France 1-0 to capture the Euro 2016 crown. It was the national team’s third consecutive loss in an global championship.
And while you might expect opposing fans of two nations slugging it out for a European championship to be bitter rivals, the below video suggests anything but. There were a number of players who showed a lot of quality.
But Leboeuf has argued that the forward was not consistent enough throughout the tournament.
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Dimitri Payet has been speaking about the challenge that forced Cristiano Ronaldo out of the Euro 2016 final. The boy patted the fan on the arm as they walked off and the man stopped to give him another hug.
