EURO 2024 - Portugal 2-1 Czechia exciting turnaround in stoppages

Portugal scraped a stoppage-time win over Czechia with Francisco Conceicao, but Robin Hranac had a nightmare with an own goal and stumble for the decider and Rafael Leao only got booked for diving.

Group F was the final one to kick off, starting with Vincenzo Montella’s Turkey earning a dramatic 3-1 victory over Georgia earlier this evening. Former Juventus star Cristiano Ronaldo made history by stepping onto the pitch as the first man to participate in six European Championships, while Pepe at 41 and 113 days was the oldest ever player.

Rafael Leao just failed to get on the end of a Bruno Fernandes ball flashed across the face of goal, then Cristiano Ronaldo forced a couple of saves, though was probably offside on the first.

Italian referee Marco Guida knows Rafael Leao well and booked him for simulation when he went down too easily just outside the box.

Despite all their territorial dominance, Portugal failed to make a dent and Czechia instead took the shock lead. A cross was not cleared effectively and Lukas Provod hit a right-foot scorcher first time from outside the box into the far top corner.

Portugal substitute Leao and got back on level terms almost immediately with a stroke of luck, as the goalkeeper pushed away a Nuno Mendes header, but only onto the shin of Robin Hranac to ricochet into the net.

As time was running out, a towering Cristiano Ronaldo header came off the upright and Diogo Jota was ready on the rebound, but CR7 was ruled inches offside.

Deep into stoppages on his competitive debut for Portugal, Francisco Conceicao fired in the winner from four yards when Neto’s roll across was only deflected into his path by a defensive stumble from own goal-scoring Hranac. Francisco is the son of former Parma, Lazio and Inter player Sergio Conceicao.