Cristiano Ronaldo taunted the Czechia goalkeeper in the aftermath of Portugal’s comeback 2-1 victory in their Euro 2024 opening game in Leipzig.
Francisco Conceicao scored the winner moments after being brought onto the field as a substitute and sealed victory, in a match where Portugal struggled to make an impact at times.
Lukas Provod scored a stunning goal just after the hour mark, surprising Portugal and giving Czechia the advantage, and it was only levelled because of a fortunate own-goal equaliser.
However, Portugal made key substitutions, bringing on Diogo Jota, who had a goal of his own disallowed because Ronaldo was in an offside position when he headed the ball back across goal. They were eventually rewarded for their efforts, when Conceicao scored with almost his first touch on his competitive debut.
But Ronaldo’s celebrations for the winning goal have been criticised. The 39-year-old was seen to pump his fists towards the goalkeeper Jindrich Stanek who was sat on the grass, and say something to midfielder Petr Sevcik.
It had not been a flawless performance from Ronaldo in the match itself, he played a lovely backheel in an attempt to play in Vitinha, but was also regularly frustrated at his teammates for their delivery and even was involved in a brief exchange of words with the referee.
Portugal finished the match with over 73 percent of the possession, and 19 shots compared to Czechia’s five, but just eight of them were on target. They also struggled to consistently create chances rather than just keep possession.
Portugal have some time off before their next game, against Turkey on Saturday 22 June, after Turkey were involved in a chaotic encounter with Georgia in the other Group F game on Tuesday.
On that occasion, Turkey ran out 3-1 winners, but the game was marred by scenes of crowd violence as well as a waterfall from the roof at Dortmund amid heavy rainfall.
