Ronaldo fires Portugal past Czech Republic
Conor Bates
Sports Editor
Portugal 1 – 0 Czech Republic
The first quarterfinal saw Group A winners Czech Republic match up against Group B runners-up Portugal. The Iberian side emerged relatively unscathed from the “Group of Death”, and their dynamo Cristiano Ronaldo was beginning to look like the man who scored 46 La Liga goals last season. His two strikes against a whimpering Netherlands made sure that this game would be billed as the CR7 show, and the Czechs were expected to play the role of whipping boys to the imperious Portuguese. The Czechs had unconvincingly topped their group on 6 points, and with their billboard stars of Rosicky and Baros injured and misfiring, respectively, they would find this game getting away from them at a rate of knots.
In the absence of their big names playing with gusto, a number of journeyman Czech players had attempted to fill the void. Attacking midfielders Petr Jiracek and Jaroslav Plasil were capable of mounting something of an attack, and young fullback Theodor Gebre Selassie had been the Czechs best player thus far, pushing counter attacks from his wing back position. In the opening stages of the game they managed to make a few movements into Portuguese territory, but nothing was coming. Centre-halves Pepe and Bruno Alves were more than able to deal with the probing of the Czech Republic creativity. They were not filling the role prescribed for them, but the end product of their machinations was blunt and ineffective.
At the opposite end of the field, Portugal were struggling to strike a killer blow. Ronaldo and Helder Postiga were constantly pressing but goals were difficult to come by. In effect, the entire first half passed by with very few instances of real cutting edge forward play, as both defences stemmed the attacking flows. In the 40th minute, Postiga left the action when he pulled his hamstring. His replacement was Hugo Almeida, and Ronaldo could hold out hope for his new strike-partner. To that point the main source of threat was indeed Ronaldo, with his main attempt being a glorious volley which rattled Petr Cech’s post.
As the game moved on into the second half, both teams seemed hesitant to give up too much. The prize of a semi-final place evidently weighed on their attacking ambition, and the defenders were still overpowering the respective forwards. When the chances came, again they were more prevalent for Portugal. Almeida headed a cross over the bar and Manchester United winger Nani called Cech into action a few times. Once more, the best opportunities were at the feet of Cristiano Ronaldo. His attempts on goal were numerous but unsuccessful for the most part. From a free-kick Petr Cech tipped the imperious striker’s shot onto the post and out for a corner. A few minutes later Almeida brilliantly headed home only to be called offside. Ronaldo cracked the ball off the bar in frustration at the referee’s decision.
The breakthrough came ten minutes from time. After 80 minutes, the Portuguese toil bore fruit when Joao Moutinho picked out the omnipotent Ronaldo who headed past Cech for a one goal lead.
In an overall sense, the game was a very frustrating affair. Both teams wanted to advance, but neither was taking too many chances going forward. With meagre offensive progression on both sides, the defensive units clamped down with relative ease. The Czechs offered little real threat, while Portugal had sporadic opportunities throughout the game, and eventually made their superiority pay. The game was disappointing in another sense as it was littered with playacting and diving. The tournament so far has managed to avoid too much this nonsense, which can only be described as a plague in the game, but Nani and Ronaldo, et al, were in troublemaking form on the night. As they go through to the semi-final against either Spain or France, the humble football fan can only hope against hope that the feigning will stop, and give way to some of the sparse moments of brilliance, like Ronaldo displayed against the waning Czechs.
