Portugal 1 (Nani 31’)
Iceland 1 (Bjarnson 50’)
Cristiano Ronaldo's biennial quest for glory in his country's colours began unceremoniously. It scarcely improved thereafter. Indeed, there is the temptation to say it started ignominiously.
Portugal’s pretenders were held by Iceland’s underdogs. The dream of conquering Europe will remain just that unless Ronaldo and Co can conjure a way of beating more fancied teams from more populous nations.
Ronaldo is the triple World Player of the Year, the triple Uefa Champions League winner, the man who has scored at least 50 goals in six successive seasons, but Iceland are no respecters of reputations, even those as lofty as his. Ronaldo was on his backside inside 15 seconds, pleading to the referee for a free kick that was never awarded. Captains had collided, Aron Gunnarsson thudding into Ronaldo in a statement of intent. A minute or so earlier they had been shaking hands in the centre circle. Then hostilities commenced.
The notion that Group F provided a platform for easy progress may have been disabused by then. Hungary had upset Austria even before Iceland provided a second surprise. Ronaldo has tended to prey on minnows over the years – he scored four times in an 8-0 win against a Malmo side featuring the Iceland centre-back Kari Arnason in December – but not this time.
See also:
• Gallery: Iceland ruin Cristiano Ronaldo and Nani's day at Euro 2016
• Group F: Old man Gabor Kiraly's Hungary see off David Alaba's Austrian young guns with 2-0 win
• Osman Samiuddin: Minnows Iceland prove upon solid foundations grand designs can be built
• Andy Mitten: Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal's enduring match-winner
He was a picture of histrionic frustration, but this was one of his quieter games. They are few and far between. Even when a semi-fit Ronaldo was below par in the Champions League final, he converted the winning penalty. There was no set-piece salvation on this occasion. An 95th-minute free kick rebounded off the wall. Uncharacteristically, he missed his kick when Pepe provided a defence-splitting pass. A volley from distance whistled wide. A late header was directed straight at Hannes Halldorsson. His finest contribution came in the form of a cross. He created the most inviting of chances for Nani with an inch-perfect centre. Halldorsson made a brilliant save. The ego can have a selfless side.
Yet the impression that it is all about him is entrenched. He has created that sense. “If we had two or three Cristiano Ronaldos in the team I would feel more comfortable,” he said last year. But Portugal have just one, rendering theirs a tougher task to win a first trophy and his a harder job to secure the individual honours that patently mean so much.
Euro 2016 forms part of a personal plotline, a chance to burnish his Ballon d'Or credentials. Being Portuguese, where there is only one Ronaldo, comes at a cost. He is competing not just with Lionel Messi but the Spaniards and Germans whose case for recognition in the end-of-year awards tends to be coated in silver after major tournaments.
This is a seventh attempt for CR7. He came closest in his first, as a teenage interloper in the Euro 2004 runners-up, a side packed with Portugal’s golden generation. They were his elders. He has dominated an era for many reasons but one is that too many of his peers have failed to realise their potential. The golden generation in Saint-Etienne belonged to Iceland, who have much their greatest group of players. Portugal have a golden talent in a team spliced together from different age groups, whether the 38-year-old centre-back Ricardo Carvalho or the rookies young enough to be his sons.
One of them, Andre Gomes, supplied the near-post centre Nani converted without breaking stride. A former Manchester United trickster provided Portugal’s major goal threat: just not Ronaldo. It reflected a shift in thinking. After a decade where their strikers have proved ineffectual on the major stage, Portugal have dispensed with them altogether. They have a side spearheaded by wingers, Ronaldo and Nani darting around in attack without an unproductive obstacle separating them.
Yet they encountered a well-drilled team, a dogged defence and an obdurate goalkeeper. Iceland played like a team intent on making history. They duly did. So did Ronaldo. He equalled Luis Figo’s national record of 127 caps but his latest landmarks felt insignificant in comparison to Iceland’s.
This was a first game on the major stage for the smallest nation to qualify for a World Cup or a European Championship. At least 10 per cent of Iceland’s 330,000 population are estimated to be in France. They witnessed a first goal at this level, an unmarked Birkir Bjarnason volleying in at the far post in a manner to suggest Portugal’s full-backs may be too flawed to realise Ronaldo’s ambitions, and earned a first point.
They deserved it, too. They don’t have Ronaldo’s speed, his skill, his stardust or his stellar scoring record. But they have the sort of spirit and structure that makes such results possible.
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