Joao Mario said it was also a chance to make up for previous year when he was in the Portugal team which lost the European under-21 championship final against Sweden.
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It was their seventh major tournament semi-final and their fourth in the last five European Championships, a run that included reaching the 2004 final where they lost to Greece.
During this year’s European Championship, Ronaldo, already his country’s leading goal scorer, surpassed the legendary Luis Figo as his country’s most capped player.
Griezmann was particularly relieved to have scored the penalty, having missed one when Atletico Madrid played in the Champions League final against Ronaldo’s Real Madrid in May. After the dust had settled, Ronaldo captained Portugal for the very first time against Brazil, a day after his 22nd birthday.
“It’s very disappointing to be so close to the final but this is a proud moment for us”.
“We’ve yet to win anything but it’s the final”.
“I have always seen Portugal as a team”.
“Twelve years ago we were playing in Portugal and there was an incredible atmosphere across the country”, he said.
“But I’d find it hard to say to any of my lads that they could have done any more”.
Although his nation’s run in the tournament ended with a 2-0 semi-final defeat to Portugal, the fact thousands of fans are expected at the team’s homecoming party in Cardiff on Friday afternoon shows how the Welsh have fallen in love with football.
“It obviously hurts to lose, we have enjoyed the experience together, but there is a lot more to come and a lot more to improve on. We said all along, we don’t just want to qualify for this tournament; we want to qualify for major tournaments every time we go into qualifiers”, Goal.com quoted Bale as saying.
Despite Bale having been instrumental in Wales’ unforeseen success during the Euro 2016 competition, he failed to put in another winning performance for his side during the semi-final, with Portugal gliding towards the final where they will play the victor of Germany and France’s match later today.
Ronaldo’s towering header from a corner put Portugal into the lead to send Wales on their way home from their most impressive tournament in their history.
It left Wales with a mountain to climb, but Ledley says he would have Bale over Ronaldo any day.
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Fernando Santos’s men now go on to a Sunday showdown at the Stade de France with Germany or hosts France.
