Cristiano Ronaldo felt the painful emotions of elite sport after having a penalty saved by the goalkeeper Jan Oblak in Portugal’s round of 16 match against Slovenia, in Euro 2024 and was seen crying during halftime of extra time.
It was a frustrating night for Ronaldo, as the Portugal captain had already sent a free kick over the bar and had a shot saved by Oblak before stepping forward to take the penalty.
Needing to open the scoring to avoid a penalty shootout, Diogo Jota entered the penalty area and was brought down by Vanja Drkusic. Ronaldo looked confident but shot low to the goalkeeper’s left as Oblak jumped to tip the ball wide of the post.
Slovenia had already forced the match into extra time after drawing 0-0 against a team being backed to win the entire tournament.
The first half of extra time ended shortly after the missed penalty and Ronaldo was seen crying among his teammates as he continued searching for his first goal of the tournament. He has already failed to convert three of the nine penalties he has scored in major international tournaments.
Ronaldo’s display of emotion contrasted sharply with that of Oblak in the Slovenian group, who energetically encouraged his team to keep fighting.
Slovenia were the lowest-ranked team yet in the competition and took Portugal to a penalty shoot-out, where Ronaldo converted his effort to help his team reach the quarter-finals.
