Cancelo, Portugal beat Slovenia on penalties, advance to Euro 2024 quarter-finals
Cancelo, Portugal beat Slovenia on penalties, advance to Euro 2024 quarter-finals
Barcelona loanees João Cancelo and João Félix will play for Portugal in the Euro 2024 quarter-finals thanks to a dramatic 3-0 win on penalties following a 0-0 draw after extra time on Monday’s Round of 16 tie in Frankfurt. Portugal struggled all night against Slovenia’s well-organized defense, and after a dramatic extra period and a heroic turn by goalkeeper Diogo Costa in the shootout, the Seleção Portuguesa found a way to win and will face France in the Last Eight.
The theme of the game was Portugal having all of the possession while Slovenia sat deep in a low block and looked to frustrate the Portuguese. And for the most part their plan worked as Jan Oblak had very little meaningful work to do in goal and most of the danger created by Portugal came on crosses and shots from distance that went narrowly wide or over the bar without really troubling the Slovenian defense.
The underdogs didn’t offer much going forward, but their plan was clearly to still be alive at halftime and it was accomplished successfully as the game was still goalless at the break and Portugal had not yet turned their dominance of possession into real chances. Roberto Martínez had plenty of options on the bench to try and change the game, and Portugal would certainly increase the pressure in the second half to try and find the winning goal.
Portugal played a bit better to start the final period thanks to the movement of Cancelo, who started operating in midfield as an inverted right-back and caused real issues for the Slovenia backline with his direct running and one-on-one skills. Cristiano Ronaldo also forced a good save out of Oblak with a free-kick, but Portugal had yet to create a true scoring chance as we reached the final 10 minutes.
They did have a big opportunity in the 89th minute when Ronaldo was played through one-on-one with Oblak, but shot straight at the Atlético Madrid keeper in what was the last real chance in regulation and the final whistle came to send us to extra time.
Things looked the same to start the additional period, with Portugal having the ball but unable to break down the Slovenian structure. Then out of nowhere Diogo Jota went on a courageous solo run through the middle and went down inside the box, and the referee pointed to the spot right before the halftime of extra time. Ronaldo’s penalty was brilliantly saved by Oblak, and we were still goalless after 115 minutes of football in Frankfurt.
Both teams seemed to be looking for the penalty shootout towards the end of extra time, but a bad error from Pepe created a monster chance for Benjamin Sesko to win it at the death, but Diogo Costa made a huge save to keep Portugal in it before the final whistle came to send this dramatic tie to penalties.
And if Jan Oblak was the hero during the game, Costa was the shining star of the shootout: the Portugal keeper saved all of Slovenia’s three penalties, and Portugal never missed to finally escape Frankfurt with a confirmed place in the quarter-finals.
This was a crazy game even with very few chances in the first 90 minutes, but Diogo Costa was the hero for Portugal after Jan Oblak seemed like the goalkeeper who would take all of the headlines on the night. But this is how wild football can be, and Portugal and France will now fight for a spot in the semi-finals even though neither quite deserve to be there.