Portugal coach Fernando Santos is backing misfiring Cristiano Ronaldo to break his Euro 2016 duck by netting against Hungary today to help fire his side into the round-of-16.
Ronaldo is still waiting for his opening goal in France to become the first person to score at four consecutive European Championships.
The 31-year-old is the holder of numerous goalscoring records, but he has yet to hit the net at Euro 2016, despite 20 chances so far.
Photo: Reuters
Ronaldo set a new Portuguese record with his 128th international cap in Saturday’s goalless draw with Austria — a milestone overshadowed by his penalty miss.
He crashed a 79th-minute spot-kick against the post in Paris having also failed to score in the 1-1 draw with Iceland on Tuesday last week.
The star that fans either love or hate won few Icelandic friends by slamming their team’s “small mentality” after that draw.
Photo: AFP
It has been a frustrating tournament for Ronaldo.
His Portugal side has failed to live up to their billing as Group F favorites. They lie only third in the table behind Iceland and Hungary, who they must beat at the Stade de Lyon to be sure of reaching the round-of-16.
“Ronaldo is a player who scores a lot of goals and I’m sure he will score in the next game against Hungary,” Santos said.
Portugal had 23 shots on the Austria goal — hitting the woodwork twice — and Santos expects his side to find the net and win “ugly” if need be.
“It was the first time we failed to score during my reign,” Santos said. “We created so many chances, we didn’t score, but I think we will next time out. We’re sad, but we have things in our own hands. It doesn’t matter if we play better or ugly football.”
Hungary’s defense is not known for its generosity. Since their 8-1 thrashing by the Netherlands in October 2013 — their record defeat — Hungary have conceded just 20 goals in 24 games.
Their 2-0 win over Austria and 1-1 draw with Iceland means they face Portugal top of Group F and in pole position to advance, and Bruno Alves says Portugal must back themselves to beat Hungary and book a round-of-16 clash on Sunday in Toulouse as group winners.
“It’s up to us to break them down. We need to believe and trust in ourselves, that we are able to beat them,” the Portugal defender said.
Portugal have won all five of their competitive games against Hungary, including their two most recent victories in qualifying for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Off the field, Hungary need to watch their step for the rest of their Euro 2016 campaign.
UEFA were set to announce their punishment yesterday after crowd trouble in the draw with Iceland.
In Marseille, Hungarian fans clashed with stewards in the Stade Velodrome and set off flares.
Their captain, Balazs Dzsudzsak, personally appealed for calm during the Marseille match.
He wants to see the same passion against Portugal in Lyon, just not the trouble.
“I ask that everyone continues to support us, but in a way which does not give reason for any possible punishment,” the Bursaspor winger said. “Only the events on the field will determine how we finish the European Championship.”
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier