Portugal started the European Championship on Tuesday with a late win against Hungary. Fernando Santos’ men hardly managed to create any danger against the strongly grouped Hungarians for a long time, but found an opening in the 85th minute via Raphaël Guerreiro. Cristiano Ronaldo then scored two more times, once from a penalty kick: 0-3. Ronaldo became the first player to play in five European Championships on Tuesday evening and is the tournament’s all-time top scorer with eleven goals. Incidentally, it was the first European Championship match played in a full stadium: the Puskás Aréna in Budapest was sold out.
Portugal had a clear dominance in the field from the opening phase, as expected, while Hungary grouped defensively. A Seleção das Quinas had a hard time with that and only sparsely created small opportunities. Diogo Jota saw a hard shot from sixteen yards being parried, while Cristiano Ronaldo didn’t time his header well after a cross from Bernardo Silva. On the other side, the only Hungarian goal from the first half came from the head of Ádám Szalai, who aimed straight at Rui Patrício.
In the final phase of the first half, Portugal became a lot more dangerous. Nélson Semedo, as right back replacing the corona-infected João Cancelo, reached the back line and served Jota. The attacker had a great shooting opportunity from the turn, but aimed straight at Péter Gulácsi. Ronaldo emerged free in front of the goal moments later after a sharp cross from Bruno Fernandes, but the star player of Portugal hit the ball badly and tapped over.
After the break, Portugal again sought the attack with little success. Pepe’s header from a corner was tapped out of the corner, but Hungary didn’t run into any other problems. The home team tried it themselves with a hard shot by Roland Sallai on the fists of Rui Patrício. Further into the second half, Bruno Fernandes saw a low-range shot being parried, while Ronaldo was denied a penalty after an alleged handball from Attila Fiola.
In the eightieth minute, Szabolcs Schön seemed to surprisingly give the Hungarians the lead after a nice dribble from the right wing, but the ex-Ajacied was offside for a meter in the run-up and was whistled back. Five minutes later, Portugal took the lead. Raphaël Guerreiro received a deflected cross from Rafa Silva and saw his effort come in via a Hungarian foot: 0-1. Two minutes later, Rafa Silva was held in the penalty area by Willi Orban, after which Cristiano Ronaldo scored from eleven meters: 0-2. Ronaldo scored again in injury time by passing Gulácsi from close range: 0-3.
| No. | Team | m | W | G | V | +/- | Pnt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Portugal | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| 2 | Germany | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | France | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 | Hungary | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
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