Euro 2012: The Semi-Finals – Spain 0-0 Portugal (Spain Win 4-2 On Penalty Kicks)
So it was all about Cristiano Ronaldo doing nothing. And I pilloried BBC commentators for fawning over him even while he was doing nothing, when they’d actually spotted the defining moment of Portugal’s tournament. “Look at Ronaldo, just waiting for his opportunity” said Steve Wilson, midway through the stultifying second half against Spain. An hour later, he was still waiting, as Cesc Fabregas’s scuffed spot-kick snuck in off a post, where Bruno Alves’s thunderously well-struck effort moments earlier had cannoned back off the crossbar. Spain’s victory was the inside of the width of the frame of the goal and Ronaldo could do nothing about it. “He fancied the big moment,” noted Gary Lineker in the BBC corner-flag cubbyhole, on Ronaldo being the fifth, rather than the first, Portuguese shoot-out penalty-taker. “I don’t understand it,” bleated Shearer, blandly unaware that he’d just heard the explanation. Portugal’s penalties had already raised eyebrows when burly centre-back Alves strode confidently forward to take their third kick, only to be overhauled in the final furlong by Nani, whose turn it actually was. The defender was blamed by the pundits for his stupidity, as they always do – hence the surprise that Sergio Ramos had both the composure and the intelligent to chip-drive his spot-kick down the middle of the goal. But Nani must have been at least as culpable. For once, though, the squanderer...
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