Paul Rouget, Media365: published on Tuesday July 2, 2024 at 8:49 a.m.
Diogo Costa made history by saving three penalties as Portugal qualified for the Euro quarter-finals after their victory against Slovenia.
A few hours after having barely secured their qualification by dominating Belgium by the narrowest of margins (1-0), the Blues had to watch to find out their opponent in the quarter-finals of the Euro. Because Portugal only obtained their ticket after the penalty shootout, Monday evening against Slovenia in Frankfurt (0-0, 3-0 pen). While Cristiano Ronaldo had missed a penalty in extra time, he did not miss during a shootout that saw his teammate Diogo Costa enter history. The Porto goalkeeper became the first in the history of the competition to deflect three opponent attempts and not concede a single goal during a penalty shootout, successively thwarting Josip Ilicic, Jure Balkovec and Benjamin Verbic, before Bernardo Silva qualified the Portuguese.
“I blindly followed my instinct”
Diogo Costa was the hero tonight, having already saved his team during extra time, after “CR7” had saved a penalty kick from Jan Oblak. Pepe, the other Seleção veteran, got tangled up, losing a very dangerous ball. Benjamin Sesko was then able to run to have a one-on-one with Diogo Costa. Except that the latter, already boiling, stepped in to block this huge opportunity with his foot. “These are the most difficult matches, because you always spend a lot of time without touching the ball. And I focused solely on having a chance to be decisive and I spent all my energy on that. And I am very happy, above all, to have helped the team,” he then reacted, also referring to “the best match of (his) life”. “It is perhaps the one in which I managed to help the team the most. This time, I blindly followed my instinct.” Hoping that this state of grace does not last against the Blues…
