Ronaldo’s impressive header early in the second half put Portugal on their way before the Real Madrid superstar saw his shot turned in by Nani soon after for the team’s second goal.
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Ronaldo was also playing when Portugal reached their only previous European championship final on home soil in 2004, but lost 1-0 to Greece.
Next up for Fernando Santos’ side is this Sunday’s final against either host-nation France or World Champions Germany, who face-off against each other in the one remaining semi-final on Thursday night. “There is still a lot more to come, still a lot more to improve from us lot”, Bale said.
“We all know how long the wait has been, so even to have been in the group stages was incredible”.
But Ronaldo insists he has “given it my all” for his country and will track back to prevent goals rather than just score them.
The match was interesting but both sides found it hard to score in the first half.
It was the Cristiano Ronaldo vs Gareth Bale show in the Euro 2016 semi finals. This could have been the match where Bale emerged from Ronaldo’s shadow, but that will have to wait. “We’re close and I think we’ll win [the Euros]”.
But the Welsh had no response to the successive blows dealt by Ronaldo after a turgid first half that had been illuminated by a couple of surging runs from Bale.
Portugal had been extra-time specialists in recent knockout games in major tournaments, and hadn’t previously won a match in regulation 90 minutes in France. We’re not the best team in the world, but we’re no pushovers either.
The Real Madrid team-mates embraced moments after Ronaldo had helped send Bales’ Wales plummeting out of the tournament in a tactical contest.
“It was whoever got the first goal and they got it”.
The loss of Aaron Ramsey had a negative effect on the Wales team against Portugal, according to Sky Sports football pundit Alan Smith.
Shortly after full time, star man Gareth Bale tweeted: “No regrets tonight, we gave everything”.
“The national team is everything”.
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Ronaldo said that he has always dreamed of winning the title for Portugal while adding that he now remains only one step away from achieving his European dream, the Guardian reported.
