Portugal defeated Slovenia 3-0 in a penalty shootout, following a 0-0 draw that saw Cristiano Ronaldo miss a penalty in extra time.
Goalkeeper Diogo Costa made three saves from Josip Ilicic, Jure Balkovec, and Benjamin Verbic to secure Portugal’s victory in the Euro 2024 round-of-16 match on Monday, July 1, 2024.
Portugal will face France in Hamburg on Friday, July 5, 2024.
Portugal’s dominance in the match created most of the scoring opportunities, as their goalkeeper saved a one-on-one against Slovenia’s Benjamin Sesko.
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Describing how the penalty came about, Diogo Jota’s run into the box was stopped by Vanja Drkusic’s foul, which gave Portugal a penalty kick in extra time. Although Drkusic was already on a yellow card, the referee pardoned him.
Despite having Bruno Fernandes as a reliable penalty taker, Ronaldo chose to take the shot. However, Jan Oblak saved his shot.
Slovenia on the other hand, made use of long balls to Sporar and Sesko whenever they had the ball, attempting to generate chances from minimal possession.
However, their strategy paid off, creating two one-on-one chances for Sesko, both resulting from errors by Pepê. While Sesko failed to convert the first chance, shooting wide, Costa made a save to deny him on the second attempt.
The memory of Sesko’s second miss will likely haunt him, and when the stakes were raised in the shootout, Slovenia came under pressure, as they were unable to overcome Portugal’s goalkeeping.
