By Ashley Hammond, Staff Reporter
Lyon: It was the game that had everything, a sun-kissed six goal thriller buoyed by a passionate cacophony of sight and sound at the packed 60,000 Parc Olympique Lyonnais, which saw Portugal fight back from behind three times.
The match of the tournament so far, with two contenders for goal of the tournament as well, what happened on this wild and raucous Wednesday won’t be easy to forget through the haze of flares and frenzied frustration.
Zoltan Gera chested down a poorly headed clearance by Nani and half-volleyed the ball back into the bottom right from 25 yards midway through the first half.
Nani made up for it just before the interval when he stabbed Ronaldo’s defence-splitting pass low into the bottom left between the keeper and the post.
But just after the break Balazs Dzsudzsak’s free-kick caught a deflection off the defensive wall that wrong-footed the keeper and went in.
What Ronaldo did just two minutes later will be added to his footballing folklore however, letting Joao Mario’s cross pass behind his standing foot and the marker in front of him, only to coolly back flick with his other foot into the corner of the goal.
Off guard
Dzsudzsak then saw an identical free kick to his earlier one come back off the wall before curling in a rebound that caught another deflection to again catch the keeper off guard and make it 3-2 on 55 minutes.
But Ronaldo headed in Ricardo Quresma’s cross just after the hour mark to equalise for a third and final time. Hungary could have found a winner two minutes later but Adam Szalai smashed Gergo Lovrencsics cross off the post.
As if the end-to-end action wasn’t dizzying enough, Portugal fans were then left confused as to whether this impending and inevitable third consecutive group stage draw still meant they could qualify as one of the four best third place finishers; a position that betrays their stature in world football, especially considering the fact they finished behind pre-tournament minnows Hungary and Iceland.
The remaining 15 minutes were played out in stark contrast to the first 75, as the number crunchers consoled themselves with a mathematical Last 16 entry through the back door, with sit-back and defend tactics duly employed.
Winning mentality
Either way it wasn’t enough for Portugal fans who left the stadium as if they had been eliminated. Even with this get-out-of-jail card, some felt an early exit was just around the corner anyway.
“You can’t win games if you can’t defend,” said Noel Lemeiras, 38. “We were lucky to qualify. The next game we could go out because Croatia are better than us. A team has to be about more than one person. Before the tournament I thought we could do well but like this we won’t even make the quarter-finals.”
Vincent Vaiga, 50, added: “We didn’t have a winning mentality. The coach [Fernando Santos] has to go because he hasn’t chosen the right team or tactics. We play better against teams that take us on instead of sitting back and defending, so you never know, anything can happen in football, we might still upset Croatia, but with the way Portugal are playing it really would be an upset. This is a big disappointment for us so far.”
Youth and experience
For a team that just finished top of their group despite not appearing in a major tournament for 30 years, Hungary fans were remarkably chilled about their shock form.
“It’s a bit of a surprise, but over the last six months we’ve been doing better because of our German coach [Bernd Storck],” said Victor Redei, 26. “He’s worked with the youth team and has come up to the seniors and has now got a good mix of youth and experience.
“Maybe we can go one more round despite being drawn with Belgium in the Last 16. Other teams may have good players but they don’t always work well together like we do.”
Andras Jurak, 37, added: “I don’t think our level and technique has changed that much but the coach has brought enthusiasm and he’s enabled us to unlock our real potential.
“If you look at what Greece did in 2004, no one expected them to go all the way and win it, but they did. I’m not saying we can do that, it would be great and this is football, so anything can happen, but I’ve got a feeling Belgium will be too strong for us.”
The journalist attended the game courtesy of Hyundai.
