By Simon Wright – Follow me on Twitter @Siwri88
It was a night to forget for Cristiano Ronaldo, as the
Portugal captain missed a penalty in his country’s goalless draw with Austria
in the Parc des Princes.
Ronaldo has endured a frustrating tournament so far and he
cracked under the pressure here, missing several chances before the key moment
in the 79th minute.
After being wrestled to the ground by Martin Hinteregger, Ronaldo
stepped up and inexplicably hit the post from 12 yards out with goalkeeper
Robert Almer having dived the wrong way.
The draw leaves both sides requiring wins in their final
Group F matches to definitely qualify or face the genuine threat of an embarrassing
early exit from EURO 2016.
Ronaldo
frown
As expected, all the cameras and the anticipation were on
Ronaldo. He was under more scrutiny to perform following his comments about
Iceland on Tuesday night that didn’t win him many fans on social media afterwards.
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| Cristiano Ronaldo can't quite believe he didn't score either vs. Austria |
He smiled in the early exchanges, believing his chance would
come to seal what was a record-breaking night for him. Ronaldo (pictured) overtook Luis Figo’s record of 127 caps to become Portugal’s most capped player in their international history.
As the night wore on, that smile rapidly disappeared and the
frown re-emerged from the Iceland game. He put a simple header wide in the
first half, had a couple of efforts saved by Almer and then had the missed
spot-kick.
To add insult to injury, he also had a goal disallowed
correctly in the final five minutes for offside, after glancing a header past
Almer from a Portuguese free-kick.
He will want to forget what should have been a celebratory
evening very quickly. He wasn’t helped by the other pair of attacking threats.
Both Nani and Ricardo Quaresma were totally ineffective, gifted possession away
too much and neither saw the 90 minutes out.
Austrian
defensive might
Austria only had four shots on-goal in the whole match.
Their mission was simply to avoid defeat and ensure a victory over Iceland on
Wednesday should be enough to take them through into the last 16.
They might have not created too much, but still posed a
danger on the counter. Having had a terrible match against Hungary, Martin
Harnik restored some of his credentials with a hard-working effort, chasing and
pressing many lost causes all night.
Sebastian Prodl came into the central defensive line-up in
place of the banned Aleksandar Dragovic and after a shaky start, settled into
the game very well and ensured Ronaldo was going to have to work hard for any
sights of the Austrian goal.
Despite some indifferent kicking in the first half, Almer was
another to play well. He made a string of good saves to deny Ronaldo, Nani and Vieirinha.
It was a mighty defensive performance from Austria to earn
their first clean sheet at a major tournament since shutting out Algeria at the
1982 World Cup finals. They still haven’t won a game though at the European
Championships and that will have to change on Wednesday for them to remain at
the party in EURO 2016.
My best
three players of the match
Man of the Match: Julian Baumgartlinger (Austria)
Poor against Hungary, Julian Baumgartlinger showed in Paris
why Bayer 04 Leverkusen have just signed him from Bundesliga rivals Mainz. He
shielded the defence superbly, enjoyed his match-up against Joao Moutinho and
left his mark on the midfielder too. It was a first-rate performance from the
Austrian.
2nd: William Carvalho (Portugal)
Coming into the team for this match, William Carvalho
underlined his quality throughout, ensuring it would be a long evening for
Austria’s creative sparks Marcel Sabitzer and Marko Arnautovic. You can see why
many top European clubs want to acquire Carvalho’s signature.
3rd: Sebastian Prodl (Austria)
After some nervy touches early on, the experienced Prodl
came into the match and kept Ronaldo on his toes throughout. He replaced the
suspended Aleksandar Dragovic and on this evidence, Dragovic will do well to
win his place back for Wednesday’s clash with Iceland.
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