'Still ev'rybody says - Rock me Amadeus': Portugal reach semis

Portugal 1 Czech 0

The Portuguese dominated the Czechs to win a place in the semi finals and make Portugal genuine (if outside) contenders for the Championship.

The Czechs showed little attacking intention — a large number of the side were restricted to tethering Portugal’s explosive wide players, which merely pinned their own ambitions deep in their own half. The previously positive Petr Jiráček, formerly of the band Supertramp, did so much work tracking back that in the closing stages he looked liked he’d crawled out of the desert.   

Portugal's control and superiority exhausted the Czechs. Coentrão and Nani were always dangerous, while João Moutinho pulled the midfield strings in a career defining game that will make the twenty-five year old a major transfer target.  


There was another extraordinary performance from Cristiano Ronaldo, of course, who headed the winner in a game where he hit a whole bunch of shots against the post, the goalkeeper, the hoardings, wherever. Ronaldo’s goal sent spectator Luis Figo into a Eusébio grabbing frenzy in the directors’ box. A precarious celebration given that seventy year old legend has spent much of this year going in and out of hospital.       

Ronaldo has come a long way since he was a stringy, rat-tailed teenager at Manchester United. After a season in the Premier League I had made my pronouncement: “He’ll get found out”, I advised. “People have figured out his tricks. He’ll get sold somewhere and we’ll never see him again. Mark my words.”  

Eight years on, BBC pundits including Jürgen Klinsmann were roundly exulting over Ronaldo’s performance against the Czechs, praising his ability to the heavens.

Then Lineker popped the dreaded question: “Ronaldo or Messi?”.

“Messi”, they each concluded, and to justify their choice began to pick apart Ronaldo’s game, listing anything negative they could dream of. By the time they’d finished, the magical afterglow of Ronaldo’s performance had been all but extinguished. Even on a night of such triumph, Ronaldo was cast as Salieri to Lionel Messi's Amadeus. 

Lineker (left) 48 goals for England, but
not nearly as good as Klinsmann (right middle).