I'm still in a state of disbelief. I don't think this actually happened...or maybe the "way' it actually happened is more apt.
After losing to Greece on home soil in Euro 2004 when we previously got through Spain, England, and Holland. With a team that was composed of Figo/Rui Costa/Deco/Ronaldo/Maniche/Miguel/Jorge Andrade/Carvalho..
After losing to France in 1984, 2000, and 2006 in heartbreaking fashion.
Losing Ronaldo after 20 minutes when it was obvious ouryoung players were nervous at the start of the match with sloppy play, and getting absolutely deflated when Ronaldo went off. Yet again it seemed as if we were destined to fail in a massive match.
To beat France, in Paris, one of our demon teams..and after losing Euro 2004 in Lisbon...with a team of inexperienced youngsters, a few seasoned veterans (Fonte, Nani) and 2 world class players near the end of their prime(Pepe, Ronaldo)....
And ********ing EDER to score the winner? I guarantee you 11 million Portuguese cried out in terror and horror at the sight of him getting subbed on....and to be fair to him he actually did decent, won a lot of freekicks, held up play, prayed to the lord when he "won" Gurreiros freekick that smashed against the underside of the bar, had the header saved by Lloris, and scored the winner with a thunderbolt when I was screaming at the TV that he looked like a donkey dribbling...
Eusebio was with him when he came on. He deserved to be here to see this.
Gurreiro was unreal, and Joao Mario was again fantastic when he was pushed into his natural position in the middle after we went 4-3-3...while we held on for life in the first half, I felt we grew into the game while in the second and rode some decent saves and gignacs post into ET where we had all the good chances and were comfortable. Sanches was overawed by the occasion but he did have some great moments, turning pogba and sissoko with that piece of skill to burst through the middle and counter shows what he is capable of doing.
I wonder what Ronaldo said at half time, because the team looked "shocked" and deflated as Cedric admitted to.
What a 24 hours..I'll never forget it. Who knows when/if it will happen again...but to know that for once we had some luck run our way (gignacs post) coupled with the surrounding factors I mentioned at the start...it must have been written in the stars.
Sir Alex waiting to hug Ronaldo: I'm sure that meant so much to both, Sir Alex was his father in football.
https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/4s9jpl/sir_alex_patiently_waiting_to_congratulate_ronaldo/