Though the Czechs started brightly, it was Portugal which scored first. Then came the goals from Cristiano Ronaldo and Ricardo Quaresma that underlined the Portuguese domination. Laura Stevenson reports.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s sweet second-half strike helped Portugal secure a Euro 2008 quarterfinal berth as Luiz Felipe Scolari’s team beat Czech Republic at the Stade de Geneve. The Manchester United star coolly slotted home after being fed by Deco shortly after the hour to put the Portuguese in the lead for a second time, Libor Sionko having equalised Deco’s opener.
Substitute Ricardo Quaresma put matters absolutely beyond doubt in stoppage time when he tapped home from Ronaldo’s pass.
The Czechs started brightly, but the opening goal came at the other end. Ronaldo played a one-two with Nuno Gomes which Petr Cech came to deal with, and Deco scrambled home at the second attempt.
The Czechs were level two minutes later, however, thanks to a diving header from Sionko — one of the smallest men on the pitch — following Jaroslav Plasil’s corner.
Deco soon found space to try to restore Portugal’s lead, but his shot was too high to trouble Cech, and the Chelsea goalkeeper got down well seconds later to keep out a low drive from Ronaldo. The action shifted from end to end at a brisk pace, with Sionko’s pull-back from a corner causing panic in the Portuguese defence before the danger was cleared.
Cech again had to be alert four minutes before half-time to palm away a left-footed blast and a fierce right-footed free-kick from Ronaldo, but he was more than equal to both the shots.
The second half began in a similar vein, with both teams on the front foot. Matejovsky slid a neat ball into the area and into the path of Sionko, whose low cross just evaded the onrushing Czech attackers three minutes after the break.
Nuno Gomes did well to get a shot away but it was at a comfortable height for Cech. The Benfica striker then almost capitalised on David Rozehnal’s hesitancy, but the Lazio defender got back well to make amends.
Portugal were beginning to create half-chances, Simao Sabrosa the next to try his luck from 12 yards was denied by Cech. Then came what proved to be the game’s decisive 60 seconds.
After 62 minutes, Czech captain Tomas Ujfalusi got up well at the near post but saw his header flash across goal and narrowly wide from Plasil’s corner.
And then at the other end, Deco rolled the ball to Ronaldo on the edge of the area and the 23-year-old struck his first goal of the tournament into the bottom-left corner.
Plasil almost set up an equaliser for the Czechs shortly afterwards when he headed a corner back across goal but none of his mates was on hand to take advantage.
Bruckner introduced the Czechs’ all-time leading goalscorer Jan Koller after 73 minutes to join Milan Baros up front in pursuit of an equaliser. But the only time Portugal goalkeeper Ricardo Pereira was troubled in the remaining 17 minutes was when he had to tip a Sionko header over the bar from substitute Stanislav Vlcek’s corner.
And on the stroke of full-time, the Portuguese made absolutely certain when Ronaldo broke free and unselfishly passed to substitute Quaresma for the clincher.
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