We'll have more time to chat about this Portugal match in more detail on tomorrow night's podcast, but for now, in case you missed today's thrilling - and bizarre - match between Portugal and Austria, here are a few notes:
- Cristiano Ronaldo played as a 9, and was heavily involved at that position. Though he started the match detached from this outing - was lackadaisical without the ball, and lost it a few times when he received it with some lazy touches - he started to reap the benefits of crosses from Quaresma and Gomez and had plenty of chances to open the scoring for his side as the match progressed.
- De facto, he unleashed 7 shots - 3 of them on target. Beyond that, he also had a header that Austrian goalkeeper Almer saved that was deemed offside (wrongfully), and has one disallowed offside goal (rightfully). The most unbelievable part of Ronaldo's entire stat line was surely a penalty miss which bounced off the post. It was an unimaginable moment.
- Though Ronaldo received a lot of criticism today - certainly heightened due to his post-match comments after the Iceland match - a lot of it was unfounded. Ronaldo played really well today, was really involved in Portugal's attack, and on any other given day, he scores at least one of those chances that he had. Off-days are a thing - they happen. It should also be noted the Robert Almer had a fantastic game in-between the posts.
- Pepe - alongside the ageless Ricardo Carvalho - played a really outstanding match at the back. He had four clearances and six interceptions, and overall displayed tremendous positioning to snuff out Austria's rare attacks.