Agencies
Saint-Etienne (France), June 15: Minnows Iceland earned a 1-1 draw with Cristiano Ronaldo-led Portugal on their European Championship debut as the superstar forward failed to score on a night he equalled his country’s appearance record. A superb finish by Nani gave Portugal the lead before Iceland’s industrious midfielder Birkir Bjarnason levelled for the Scandinavians here Tuesday.
Ronaldo equalled Luis Figo’s record number of caps with both the Portugal legends now on 127 appearances. However, it was a quiet night for the Real Madrid forward, who failed to become the first man to score in four European Championships, as he was frustrated by Iceland’s dogged defence and a great display from goalkeeper Hannes Halldorsson.
“We were on top, we were the better team and we played the better football, but Iceland are a good team and played a lot of long balls, which caused us problems,” said goal-scorer Nani. “We had enough chances but we couldn’t score another one. That’s football.”
Meanwhile after the game Ronaldo slammed Iceland for proverbially ‘parking the bus’ in front of their own goal. Ronaldo had 10 of Portugal’s 24 shots on goal, but all his efforts failed to get the winner for Portugal.
“It was difficult over the 90 minutes, because they scored one goal and that was after they had put every player behind the ball,” fumed Ronaldo. “They put the bus in the net. (Parked the bus in front of goal). We tried our best, we created many chances and kept the ball. Iceland didn’t try anything, they just defend, defend, defend, they had two chances and scored a goal, it was a lucky night for them but we feel frustrated.
Portugal are now under pressure in their second game against Austria, who earlier lost their opening match 0-2 to Hungary in the other pool match in Bordeaux.
However, Ronaldo appeared confident of victory Saturday in Paris. “It’s a little bit of frustration for us, but this is just the beginning, we’re not worried about that,” said the former Manchester United star.