The lead: Costa turns Ronaldo's tears of sadness to joy FRANKFURT, Germany -- came up with four game-changing saves, one in extra time and three in a penalty shootout, to send through to the quarterfinals at the expense of . In doing so, the goalkeeper saved from the indignity of contributing to Portugal's early exit from Euro 2024 after the 39-year-old missed a penalty in extra time. Ronaldo, who was in tears after saved his spot-kick, scored in the shootout and immediately held up his hands to apologise to the Portugal fans for his earlier error.
In the end it didn't matter because Costa first denied when the striker was sent clean through by a mistake and then saved all three Slovenia penalties in the shootout. Ronaldo, and scored to set up a quarterfinal tie against in Hamburg on Friday. Head coach Roberto Martinez wore a beaming smile as Silva scored the decisive kick, but he will know he's got problems to solve before facing France.
The issue of whether Ronaldo should be starting or not aside, his team boast some of the best attacking players in the world but they struggled to break down a stubborn Slovenia side. Oblak made a fantastic save to stop Ronaldo's penalty, but had very little else to do except watch his defenders crowd the box and head clear the flurry of crosses aimed at the Al Nassr striker. At times, Ronaldo looked overtaken by desperation as he tried everything to score his first goal of the tournament.
He will get another chance against France, but unles.