Hungary 0-3 Portugal
Sometimes it takes a moment of magic, on other occasions a spot of good fortune is required.
In this Euro 2020 clash it needed the latter to send the reigning European champions on their way.
Yet before we look at the decisive moment, let us salute a footballing legend.
Highlights of the game
Of a player who is arguably the greatest the world has ever seen.
Even at the age of 36 he remains as thirsty as ever for success and now has a stronger set of teammates around him than he did in 2016.
That was the year when he inspired a Portugal European triumph on French soil and duly followed it up by putting the young talented upstarts of Holland in their place in the inaugural Nations League.
A player who has become the first to appear in five European Championships and whose double in Budapest means he is now the tournament’s all-time leading goalscorer.
He had already appeared in more tournament games than any other player (21) and before kick-off shared the record with Michel Platini, whose nine goals all came at Euro 84.
Ronaldo now has 11 across five tournaments since opening his account for Portugal with the consolation in their 2-1 group-stage defeat by Greece in 2004. Unsurprisingly, no other player has achieved that feat.
Seventeen years on he stands alone and is now aiming to reach the third Euros final of his career. No other player has achieved that, either.
A player whose genius is unsurpassed, whose goalscoring record is obscene and whose accomplishments are extraordinary.
As for the match, it took Portugal 84 minutes to break down the the country considered the weak link in Group F, Hungary.
But they have begun their defence of the title in the ‘Group of Death’ in style with three late goals.
Although Portugal deserved their victory, it was hard not to feel some sympathy at the final outcome for the injury-hit Magyars.
Whether you agree with the decision or not, in the wake of Covid-19, the Hungarian government’s decision to allow more than 60,000 fans into the new national stadium, the Puskas Arena, helped create a wonderful atmosphere.
Hungary’s Italian coach, Marco Rossi, believed the intensity and passion generated by the largest crowd in European football for 15 months could compensate for the gulf in quality between the teams and he was almost right.
The Portugal Euro 2020 highlights began when Raphael Guerreiro’s shot with the outside of the foot took a fortuitous deflection off defender Willi Orban to break Hungary’s brave resistance.
Ronaldo then converted an 87th-minute penalty after Rafa Silva was brought down and in stoppage time, a sumptuous one-two between CR7 and Silva dissected the Hungary defence and Ronaldo rolled the ball around the goalkeeper and into the back of the net.
For Hungary, as much as £2 billion has been spent on football since prime minister Viktor Orban came back into power.
At academy level there is nothing to suggest that Orban’s lavish spending has improved anything. Hungary lost all their group games at the recent European Under-21 Championship and in general the age-group sides are not performing any better than 15 years ago.
For 84 minutes here though there were signs of optimism before they slid to their first defeat in 10.
Don’t tip them to reach the next phase in such a tough group though. The SBOTOP Euro 2020 betting odds tell their own story.
Key Statistics
Ronaldo’s 39th appearance at a major tournament (European Championships & World Cup) for Portugal is an all-time record for a European player, overtaking Bastian Schweinsteiger’s 38 appearances for Germany
Ronaldo has become the oldest player to score 2+ goals in a European Championship match, taking the record from Andriy Shevchenko, who was 35 when he scored a brace against Sweden for Ukraine in 2012.
Portugal’s 3-0 win over Hungary was the joint-biggest win by the reigning champions of the European Championships in their first match of the tournament, equalling the Soviet Union’s 3-0 win over Denmark in 1964.
This was the third meeting between Hungary and Portugal at a major tournament after World Cup 1966 and Euro 2016.
Portugal have never lost against Hungary (won 10, drawn four).
Hungary remained unbeaten in the group stages in their last appearance (won one, drew two in 2016), but have won just two of nine matches in the competition (drew two, lost five).
Portugal are the only team to reach the knockout stages in each of the last six editions, a run stretching back to 1996.
Not including penalty shootouts, they are unbeaten in their last 12 games at the European Championship, with their last two defeats in the competition coming against Germany (June 2008 and June 2012).
Only Spain have embarked on a longer run without a defeat in the history of the tournament: 14 games, from 2008 to 2016 (won 11, drew three).
What’s next?
Now comes a tasty encounter as Portugal meet 2014 world champions Germany on Saturday teatime (June 19) in the Allianz Arena in Munich.
Hungary take on reigning world champions France earlier that afternoon in Budapest.
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