THE BIG STORY
Cristiano Ronaldo had a nightmare game in Paris missing countless chances and eventually hitting the post with a penalty, awarded after his own trademark tumble.
He had grabbed international opprobrium after his classless behavior at the end of the 1-1 tie with Iceland. He refused to swap shirts with an Iceland player and then gave a graceless interview in which he pilloried the tiny island nation for its lack of attacking ambition. There are only 330,000 people in Iceland.
Universally berated for his lack of tact and grace, he had brought enormous pressure on himself for today’s match with Austria in the French capital. In the end, his mouth had written checks his talent could not cash. Austria for their part were terrible, if anything even worse than they were in the 2-0 loss to Hungary.
Hungary lead the group with four points. Iceland and Portugal have two. Austria have one.
AUSTRIA 0 : 0 PORTUGAL
Portugal dominated a first half and came closer and closer as it went on. Cristiano Ronaldo missed from six yards, and Nani shot at the Austrian keeper Robert Almer with an umarked colleague screaming for the ball. Nani hit the post from close in and Joao Moutinho fired over from the rebound.
In Austria’s one chance, Wolfsburg’s Vierinha cleared ff the line from an Alaba free kick minutes before the break.
Portugal’s shot chart. Image courtesy of FourFourTwo StatZone and Opta.
A 57th effort from Ronaldo’s head was too close to Almer who got down well. He fired another free kick over in the 66th having hit the wall with an earlier effort.
His coup de grace came when he hit the post with a penalty having won it by tumbling under pressure from Martin Hinteregger. He then had a goal disallowed because he was standing two yards offside.
Portugal were by far the better side but it is hard to recount any world class saves by Almer. Their awfulness should be tonight’s story, second only to the Miracle on Iceland, but Ronaldo’s nightmare will push them off the front and back pages.
The game finished 0–0 leaving the group wide open.
ICELAND 1 : 1 HUNGARY
A late own goal by Hammarby’s Birkir Mar Sævarsson saved Hungarian blushes and secured then a vital draw at the Stade Velodrome in Marseilles. Earlier Swansea City’s Gylfi Sigursson had scored from the penalty spot to give Iceland the lead.
Iceland were unchanged from their 1-1 draw with Portugal. Midfielder Zoltan Stieber started for Hungary in Marseilles, having come off the bench to score against Austria. He comes in for former MLS star and Sporting Kansas star Krisztian Nemeth.
In the 39th minute, Hungarian keeper Gabor Kiraly came out for a corner..He bundled over one Icelander and when he landed appeared to take another out from the deck. Tamas Kadar in the meantime made a clumsy contact with Aron Gunnarsson and we were left with no concrete clue what Sergei Karasev had actually awarded the penalty for. The timing of the whistle being blown suggested that he had penalised Kadar not Kiraly.
Sigursson converted the penalty to give Iceland the lead which they held at the interval.
Werder Bremen’s Laszlo Kleinheisler was pulling the Hungarian strings but there was no way through the ranks of blue.
Two minutes from time, Sævarsson put the ball through his own net when forced to play a decent cross from the right by Nemanja Nikolic, who had finally got in behind the Iceland back eight.
Adam Szalai had one last shot for Hungary but they could not find the winner to secure their place in the last 16 and in fact were relieved when an Eidur Gudjohnnson’s shot was deflected wide after a free kick came back out off the wall.
Hungary have four points and Iceland two from two draws. Portugal play Austria next.
