June 11th 11:50am US/Eastern Time (5:50pm Central European Time)
Stade de Genève, Geneva- Group A
Result: Czech Republic 1 - Portugal 3
After the Netherlands and Spain had raised the bar with emphatic wins against Italy and Russia respectively, this was Portugal's opportunity to lay down a marker of their own at EURO 2008™
Deco hopes the individual quality in Portugal's squad will leave them in a strong position to successfully negotiate the knockout phase of EURO 2008™.
Cristiano Ronaldo said Portugal had a "good chance" of winning UEFA EURO 2008™ after his Carlsberg Man of Match award-winning performance put them on the verge of a place in the quarter-finals – a step subsequently confirmed by Turkey's victory over Switzerland.
'Very happy'
Ronaldo played a part in all three Portugal goals, combining with Nuno Gomes and Deco for the first on eight minutes, striking the second with 63 minutes played, then teeing up substitute Ricardo Quaresma for the third in added time. "It's a very good feeling," he said. "We have almost reached our aim, which was to get out of this phase and reach the next. I was very happy to help my team-mates win. We played really well even though the Czech Republic played very well in the first half and we found it difficult to penetrate their defence. We played as a team and know how to sacrifice everything for the team. We have a good chance [to win the competition] but we must respect our opponents who want to win as much as we do."
