New records for Ronaldo, a difficult victory for Portugal and an unsuccessful debut for Georgia: how the fifth day of Euro 2024 went

Portugal national team striker Cristiano Ronaldo played in the match of the first round of the Euro 2024 group stage against the Czech team, setting another record. This was reported by a Lenta.ru correspondent. The current European Championship has become Ronaldo’s sixth in a row – he is the sole leader in this indicator.

The Portuguese forward has played in all continental championships since 2004. Ronaldo’s closest pursuer among other participants in the tournament is Croatian Luka Modric. This Euro was his fifth in his career.

In the match with the Czechs, Ronaldo appeared on the field from the first minutes and set another record.

Second in this ranking is Cristiano’s national team partner Pepe. The 41-year-old Portuguese defender played in 20 matches at the European Championships. He also started for the national team, setting another record: becoming the oldest player in Euro history.

The Portuguese snatched victory in the match against the Czechs, scoring the decisive goal in the 92nd minute

In the opening match of Euro 2024, the Portuguese national team had to fight back. The Czechs defended almost the entire time, and in the 62nd minute they went on the attack, which ended in a goal. After Vladimir Tsoufal’s pass, Lukasz Provod shot from outside the penalty area, hitting the corner of the Portuguese goal.

After this, the Czech national team sat even deeper in defense, but the Portuguese attacks were still crowned with success in the 69th minute, when Czech goalkeeper Jindrich Stanek unsuccessfully knocked the ball out, hitting his defender Robin Granac right in the foot. The ball ricocheted off the latter’s foot into the goal.

The Portuguese continued to attack. In the 87th minute, Ronaldo headed in a cross from the flank, but hit the post. Diogo Jota was the first to finish. Initially, the main referee of the match, Italian Marco Guida, counted the goal, but after the intervention of VAR, he canceled it. It turned out that Ronaldo was offside at the time of the pass.

In the 90th minute, Portugal head coach Roberto Martinez made a triple substitution; defender Nelson Semedo and forwards Chico Conceição and Pedro Neto entered the field. As a result, the replacement forwards brought the Portuguese victory. In the 92nd minute, Neto crossed from the left flank, Granac made a poor stop and Conceição scored from close range.

In the remaining time, the Czechs were unable to recoup. The Portuguese team won a strong-willed victory at the start of the tournament.

McGregor made a big bet on Ronaldo becoming the top scorer at the Euros

Irish mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor expects new records from the Portuguese forward. On the social network X, he boasted that he had made a large bet on the current Euro. He bet 60 thousand euros on Ronaldo becoming the top scorer of the tournament in Germany. The odds for such an outcome are 15.00.

Ronaldo did not score in the match with the Czechs. At the moment, none of the players taking part in the Euro have scored more than one goal.

At the previous Euro, Ronaldo shared the Golden Boot with Czech Republic striker Patrik Schick. Both players scored five goals. At the same time, Cristiano took part in four matches, and Chic in five.

What McGregor was guided by when making his bet is unknown, but on June 18, former contender for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) belt, Chael Sonnen, said that the Irishman was undergoing rehabilitation. According to his information, it was because of this that McGregor withdrew from the fight against American Michael Chandler.

Georgia’s debut at the Euro was marked by a fight between fans and a defeat by the Turkish national team

In another Group F match, the teams of Georgia and Turkey met. A striking prelude to this meeting was a fight that was staged by fans of both teams right in the stands of the Signal Iduna Park stadium in Dortmund, where the game took place. Footage published on the Internet shows fans fighting near the fence between sectors and throwing foreign objects at each other.

The Dortmund police told TASS that they are studying recordings from CCTV cameras to establish the identities of the offenders. “Before the game, there was a clash at the stadium between groups of Turkish and Georgian fans. Security forces and police pushed them away from each other,” police said.

In their debut match at the Euro, the Georgian team lost first. In the 25th minute, Turkish team defender Mert Muldur managed an incredible shot: after the opponent cleared the ball, he volleyed from outside the penalty area, hitting the corner of the Georgian goal. Almost immediately, the Turks scored the second goal, but after VAR intervention it was canceled, Kenan Yildiz found himself in an offside position.

Just seven minutes later, the first goal in the history of the Georgian national team at the European Championships happened. Forward Georges Mikautadze finished off Giorgi Kochorashvili’s cross with a low shot into the near corner of Mert Günok’s goal.

In the 65th minute, 19-year-old Real Madrid midfielder Arda Guler again put Turkey ahead. The young football player distinguished himself by scoring with a long-range strike. The final score of the match was set by Kerem Akturkoglu, who scored into an empty net. Georgian national team goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili, carried away by the game, went into someone else’s penalty area in an attempt to help the team equalize the score, which the Turkish striker who came on as a substitute took advantage of.

“It’s always unpleasant to lose, but I think my team can be proud of the way we performed and represented Georgian football in such a positive way,” the head coach of the Georgian team, Frenchman Willy Sagnol, commented on the outcome of the match.