Youngster Francisco Conceicao snatched Portugal a last-gasp 2-1 win over the Czech Republic in their Euro 2024 Group F opener on Tuesday. (AP pic)
It wasn’t about the old guy after all. A young man was the hero.
Cristiano Ronaldo, 39, triggered a debate on whether he was a help or hindrance to Portugal as 21-year-old Francisco Conceicao upstaged the old master.
Portugal got the job done in their 2-1 win over Czech Republic, but they were far from incisive and impressive.
The Czech Republic scored a great goal but then conceded two shambolic ones.
A mark of champions?
Does Ronaldo have to play every single minute and take every free kick?
He just stood upfront marked. Is he holding this team back? Would he be better as an impact sub, not a starter?
Portugal have so much talent, but they were looking for Ronaldo at every opportunity. He was too slow now and seemingly weakened his side.
If he had made clever runs Bernado Silva and Bruno Fernandes would have found him.
Ronaldo might hate the idea but age has taken the edge off his genius.
Yet it was nice to see that he was not the sulk he was at the 2022 World Cup when he could not come to terms with his fading importance to the side.
Portugal did not play as well as they know they can, but as was the case for England and France, a win in the first game was vital.
The team that won every qualifying game, and have youth and energy all around Ronaldo, don’t quite look like the favourites.
Misfiring Ronaldo
It was 20 years ago that he made his major tournament debut at Euro 2004 and grabbed his first international goal. Hosts Portugal lost 2-1 to Greece.
A few weeks later, they agonisingly lost to the same opponents in the final.
Yesterday, he became the first man to play in six European championship finals when he took to the field against the Czechs.
The Portugal captain flung himself at headers, lashed a free kick over a wall and saw a couple of shots beaten away.
He won his 208th cap, he savoured the worship of supporters, but just couldn’t deliver as striker even as a lavishly talented side did everything they could to set him up with what would have been his 15th goal at the tournament.
Coach Roberto Martinez kept his talisman on to the end. And just when it seemed the win was not going to come and Ronaldo’s record 26th appearance in the finals was going to end in a draw, the fairytale happened.
It didn’t happen for him but for Conceicao, who was just 18 months old when Ronaldo scored his first goal at a European Championship.
The Conceicaos
Ronaldo replaced the goalscorer’s father, Sergio, in the Portugal squad two decades ago.
Conceicao Sr, who has coached Porto for the past seven years, watched his son provide the sort of dramatic late winners that has long been Ronaldo’s trademark.
The young Conceicao was on the pitch for 10 seconds when he got a tap in, first touch, from close range, sparking delirium in rain-lashed Leipzig.
One of three men thrown in by Martinez to make the difference, he is what you call an impact sub.
Moments earlier, another substitute Diogo Jota had a goal ruled out by VAR after Ronaldo was judged narrowly offside.
Conceicao is the first Portugal player to score as a substitute at the European Championship finals since Eder in the 2016 final against France.
Old Swingers
The oldest swingers in town both started for Portugal.
Pepe, at 41, overtook former Hungary and Crystal Palace goalkeeper Gabor Kiraly as the oldest player to appear at a European Championship finals.
Ronaldo, while contesting six Euros and extending his record number of appearances was aiming to add to his all-time landmarks of 14 goals and 12 wins.
So eager was he to get going that he was already several yards inside the Czech half when his team kicked off.
Turkish delight
The yellow wall, red for the day, erupted in Dortmund. The Turkey-Georgia game was an exciting and open match that had 103 attacks, 36 shots, three strikes that hit the woodwork and four goals.
Two of the goals were historic, Georges Mikautadze scoring Georgia’s first at a tournament, and Turkey’s 19-year-old Arda Guler becoming the Euros’ youngest debutant scorer.
Turkey’s third goal in an extraordinary evening came after Kerem Akturkoglu ran 80 yards to roll the ball into an empty net.
Seconds before, Georgia had a 96th-minute opportunity to equalise, their third in added time, a wild yet unfortunate scenario unfolded.
The goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili dashed up for a corner, a final chance to be an unexpected hero.
Instead, the ball was cleared and Akturkoglu raced off to end an astonishing night with one last explosion of joy.
So we’ve now seen all 24 teams in the tournament. For many, Germany, Spain, Romania and Switzerland have been the most impressive so far.
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