It took a penalty shootout to separate the sides, but Diogo Costa’s heroics put Portugal into the Euro 2024 quarter-finals. Look back at the match with our Portugal vs Slovenia stats page.
Portugal survived by the skin of their teeth to make the Euro 2024 quarter-finals after a spirited and dogged Slovenia performance took them to a penalty shootout before Diogo Costa’s heroics saw them through.
Costa incredibly saved all three penalties by Slovenia in the shootout, becoming the first in Euros history to save that many in a penalty shootout, as Portugal advanced to face France on Friday in Hamburg.
Whilst tense, especially in extra time and the penalty shootout, in the list of the most exciting games of Euro 2024, this match would rank very low.
Slovenia, playing in their first tournament knockout game in their history, weren’t expected to have much of the ball and certainly knew they’d have to sit deep to try and stifle the Portuguese threat. Averaging just 32% possession in the group stage, they had 27.9% of the ball in this match, but it was their hard work out of possession that frustrated Roberto Martínez’s side.
With exciting young striker Benjamin Sesko in the side, Portugal would have to be wary of the Slovenian threat on the break, and it was the RB Leipzig striker that broke clear just after the hour to beat the aging legs of Pepe before putting a scuffed shot across goal and past the post.
Across the 90 minutes before extra time, Portugal could only attempt three shots on target and their expected goals total was less than one (0.91), with the Slovenian defence doing an outstanding job of keeping out their opponents. As hard as Slovenia worked, Portugal’s tactic of getting the ball wide and firing in crosses soon became predictable. They made 31 in open play in this game, while across the tournament they’ve made 97 open-play crosses, 32 more than any other side. A lot of the time, it felt like this tactic was only used because it was how Cristiano Ronaldo wanted it.
Ronaldo was given the chance of becoming the oldest scorer in European Championship history in the 105th minute of the match, after Diogo Jota was clumsily felled in the area by Vanja Drkusic. The 39-year-old’s penalty was well struck, but Slovenian captain Jan Oblak made a heroic save onto the post to deny the all-time Euros top scorer another goal in the competition. It left Ronaldo in tears and having to be consoled by his teammates during the half-time break of extra time.
In many ways, we saw the worst of Ronaldo in this match. At times, scoring a goal to achieve further hero status seemed more valuable than making the right decision for his team, as he attempted eight shots overall without scoring. Across his last 11 tournament appearances in the World Cup and Euros combined he’s scored three goals, all from the penalty spot. He couldn’t even rely on that tonight. From non-penalty shots, he’s scoreless from 37 attempts in that spell. Overall, he’s had the most shots of any player at Euro 2024 (20) but still hasn’t scored. He’ll have at least one more chance against France, unless Martínez elects to make a change.
A penny for Gonçalo Ramos’ thoughts. At the 2022 World Cup, Ramos scored three goals in Portugal’s last-16 rout over Switzerland after replacing Ronaldo in the lineup. In doing so, he became the youngest player to score a World Cup hat-trick in 60 years. Since that game, Ramos has scored 30 goals for club and country (26 for Benfica and Paris Saint-Germain combined, another 4 for Portugal), but he’s only been given 24 minutes on the pitch at Euro 2024.
Sesko had Slovenia’s best chance of the night with five minutes of extra time remaining, robbing Pepe of the ball again and having time and space to set himself to score what would certainly have been the winner. Costa saved the day for Portugal, though, with his outstretched foot keeping Sesko’s shot from nestling into the back of the net.
Costa’s heroics continued in the penalty shootout, saving penalties from Josip Ilicic, Jure Balkovec and Benjamin Verbic to win the tie for Portugal. Incredibly, he made more saves in the shootout (3) than he did in the 120 minutes before it (2). This turned out to be the shortest penalty shootout in Euros history (six penalties taken), while not even the FIFA World Cup has seen fewer than seven taken in a single shootout.
Martínez was handed the keys to Belgium’s golden generation at the 2018 and 2022 World Cups and Euro 2020 but failed to unlock the potential. Tonight saw luck on his side, but if they play like this against France in the next round, you must fear for them.
Our Opta match centre delivers you all the Portugal vs Slovenia stats from their Euro 2024 last 16 clash at Frankfurt Arena, Germany.
The match centre below includes team and player stats, expected goals data, passing networks, an Opta chalkboard and more. It gives you everything you need to do your own match analysis.
Underneath the match centre you can find the official Opta stats on the game as well.
Portugal vs Slovenia: Post-Match Facts
- Portugal have reached the quarter-finals of a UEFA European Championship for the seventh time, more than any other side.
- In their first-ever knockout game at a major tournament (Euros/World Cup), Slovenia posted a 27.9% possession figure, the sixth lowest at Euro 2024, while overall, they have averaged the lowest possession figure of any side in this edition of the competition (31.2%).
- Portugal’s Diogo Costa became the first goalkeeper to save three penalties in a UEFA European Championship penalty shootout and only the fourth to do so in a match at major tournament (World Cup & Euros).
- This was the first ever penalty shootout at the UEFA European Championship or FIFA World Cup to see as few as six penalties taken in total.
- This was the 14th game of Euro 2024 to be goalless at half-time, already as many as in the whole of Euro 2020.
- Including his eight efforts in this game, Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo has mustered 20 shots at Euro 2024 (no goals), the most of any player, while he has failed to convert three of his nine penalties at major tournaments (Euros & World Cup) excluding shootouts.
- In major tournaments (Euros & World Cup), Ronaldo has attempted 60 direct free-kick shots (including four in this game), scoring with just one of them (vs Spain at the 2018 World Cup), while Romanian playmaker Gheorghe Hagi was the last player to attempt more in a UEFA European Championship or World Cup game, courtesy of his five against Sweden at the 1994 World Cup.
- Ronaldo has attempted 34 direct free-kick shots for Portugal at the UEFA European Championship (including four in this game), over twice as many as any other player on record (since 1980 – Zinedine Zidane 15), yet he is still to score from one.
- Portugal midfielder João Palhinha made nine tackles in this game, the last player to make more in a UEFA European Championship match was Anatoliy Tymoshchuk for Ukraine vs France in 2012 (12).
- Slovenia striker Benjamin Sesko contested 32 duels in this game, the most by a player in a UEFA European Championship game since Juraj Kucka for Slovakia against Germany in 2016 (39).
- At 41 years and 126 days old, Pepe became the oldest European player to appear in a knockout match at a major tournament (Euros & World Cup), surpassing England goalkeeper Peter Shilton, who appeared in the 1990 World Cup third-place play-off at 40 years 292 days.
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