Stellar Performance of Ronaldo

In the run-up to the European Championship, Portugal, which takes the 11th place on the FIFA ranking, is considered one of the potential winners because it has the world’s best footballer Cristiano Ronaldo of Manchester United on its national squad.

Portugal boasted its prowess yesterday in its Group A match against the Czech Republic, which is sixth on FIFA’s latest ranking list. Portugal beat the Czech Republic 3-1 thanks to Ronaldo who contributed to his team’s three goals.

Portugal went ahead on the eighth minute when Ronaldo broke through the penalty area with outstanding dribbles and passed the ball to Deco, who scrambled the ball past the keeper. With the game score at 1-1, Ronaldo struck in the 18th minute with a firm shot and then set up Ricardo Quaresma to add the third in the injury time.

Boosted by the stellar performance of Ronaldo, Portugal became the first to confirm its qualification for the quarter finals, among 16 participating nations.

In another Group A match of the Euro 2008 tournament the same day, Turkey beat Euro 2008 co-host Switzerland 2-1. Switzerland lost two games and failed to advance beyond the first round.

Portugal and the Czech Republic played a good game. Portuguese players attacked the Czechs with short passes and outstanding skills while the Czechs showed powerful performances with long passes and speed.

Even though Deco’s first goal put Portugal ahead, the Czech Republic, which has beat Germany ranked fifth on the FIFA list and finished top of Group D, was not an easy meat. In the 16th minute in the first half, Czech player Libor Sionko powered a header past Ricardo from Jaroslav Plasil’s corner.

However, Ronaldo’s goal in the 18th minute in the latter half enervated the Czechs. Ronaldo clipped in a low shot from just inside the box. Passing through five Czech defenders who scrambled to block Ronaldo, he successfully scored one goal with a low shot. In the injury time, Ronaldo broke quickly and squared the ball for Quaresma to slide it into an empty net.

kimsk@donga.com