Real Madrid superstar Cristiano Ronaldo broke two European Championship records during his Man of the Match performance against Hungary on Wednesday.
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Ronaldo scored goals two and three, one an impressive flick and the other a powerful header, to help his nation secure a tie with Croatia.
Austria were in the ascendancy after Alessandro Schopf cancelled out Jon Dadi Bodvarsson’s first-half opener, only for Iceland to break in stoppage-time and complete a 2-1 win that propelled them to second in Group F ahead of Portugal.
Waving his arms in frustration and shouting frenziedly to all around him, Cristiano Ronaldo seethed as Hungarian rivals celebrated. “Personally I was happy as the team was in dire straits – three times we had to chase down the score and three times we came back”, Ronaldo was quoted as saying by uefa.com on Thursday.
Hungary were lethal in attack; Portugal were leaky in defence but it was the class of Christiano Ronaldo that made the difference for the Portuguese side who now have a tall order against a disciplined Croatian side who beat the defending champions Spain. Portugal qualified as one of the best third-placed team – on goal difference.
Ronaldo, 31, rediscovered his form against Hungary on Wednesday after a slow start to the tournament, his two goals saving his side from a surprising group-stage exit in a thrilling 3-3 draw.
Starting their campaign with a 2-0 loss to eventual group winners Italy, De Rode Duivels went on to take out all their frustration on poor old Republic of Ireland, smashing three goals past them without reply to claim their biggest ever European Championship result. Obviously our objective was to win the game and finish first or second if possible but we’ve managed our objective, we’re through, so we should congratulate ourselves. “It doesn’t mean that when he is not scoring, he is not playing well”.
“Croatia are one of the sharks and we’ve been trying to avoid them”, said Santos. “He hasn’t played his best game at the tournament yet and hopefully he won’t against us”.
“I am really proud – honoured – to get to play with my good friends”. They have very good players.
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“I hope we can find another player, not a Zlatan as I don’t think in a small country like Sweden you can find someone like that, he’s really unique”, said Sweden boss Erik Hamren.
