Ronaldo’s Portugal seeking rebound in Euro 2016 clash against Austria
Paris - Cristiano Ronaldo missed a second half penalty as Portugal stumbled to a second straight draw at Euro 2016 on Saturday after a frustrating 0-0 stalemate against Group F rivals Austria in Paris. The point gained from the draw against Portugal made history.
Almost 27,000 Icelanders bought a ticket to watch one of their team’s Euro 2016 matches in France - that’s more than eight percent of the country’s 330,000 people.
Santos, at his pre-match press conference before the game against Austria, said that he felt Iceland didn’t play fair as they “booed Ronaldo, Booed Pepe” throughout the game and the players on the bench “kept heckling”.
Saevarsson turned a cross from Nemanja Nikolic into his own net as Iceland was headed for its first victory at a major tournament.
Hungary coach Bernd Storck said: “We couldn’t create many chances, Iceland defended cleverly, although it was better in the second half”.
“We’re at a big tournament and we’re playing against really strong teams”. Several loud bangs were heard and there was a cloud of smoke, delaying the restart.
As Gylfi Sigurdsson stepped up to take, Kiraly left his hands behind his back until the very last moment.
Kiraly looked every one of his 40 years as he flapped at a Gudmundsson corner and in the ensuing melee Tamas Kadar felled Aron Gunnarsson.
“You can see how they (Hungary) are progressing as a squad and a team”, Iceland manager Heimir Hallgrimsson told reporters. “Some would say it was a soft penalty”.
Portugal seeks all three points against inexperienced Austria (8:00 p.m UK Time).
Aside from a last minute free-kick from Iceland, that saw a deflected Eidur Gudjohnsen shot bounce wide of the post, both sides were forced to accept once point apiece.
Ronaldo criticised Iceland for having a “small mentality” after the minnows claimed a shock 1-1 draw with Portugal in their Group F opener, due to perceived defensive tactics and joyous celebrations.
Austria will definitely count their blessings they got something out of this game after being given the run around all game.
“But we are there to score a few goals and I want to win this game”.
“Everyone knows our objective is to win Euro 2016, but we have to go step by step”, said Wolfsburg’s Vierinha. We never gave up and always believed in ourselves.
It’s understandable that worldwide managers might want to squeeze their best players into positions where they feel they might be most effective, but this did not work for Austria.
“This only gives us motivation and desire because we know that every game will be more hard now”.
The policing at the Stade Velodrome was again brought into focus after they failed to stop a group of Hungary fans from changing ends.