Portugal coach Roberto Martinez praised Cristiano Ronaldo after a roller-coaster night against Slovenia in which the captain missed a penalty in extra time and then scored in a 3-0 shoot-out win to help take them into the quarterfinals at Euro 2024.
Ronaldo was left in tears after his extra-time spot-kick miss left the score at 0-0 but redeemed himself by scoring with the first kick of the shoot-out before goalkeeper Diogo Costa then saved three penalties to send Portugal through.
He [Ronaldo] doesn't need to care that much and that's why I thank him for being the way he is, for caring for the group. I was certain he had to be the first penalty taker and show us the way to the victory, Martinez said.
I think we all felt very proud of our captain. The dressing room was delighted with what he's doing. I think he gave us all a lesson, that you need to live every day as if it's the last one.
You need to have real high standards and never give up life and football gives you difficult moments, and the way he reacted is a real example that we are very proud of in Portuguese football.
