Cristiano Ronaldo produced a freakish burst of pace from one end of the pitch to the other to open the scoring in Portugal’s Euro 2020 defeat against Germany.
Fernando Santos’ European champions were beaten 4-2 by Germany on Saturday night, despite initially taking the lead in Munich with a devastating counter-attack.
After 15 minutes Toni Kroos whipped in a corner for the hosts and Ronaldo headed clear, allowing Bernardo Silva to race forward on the break.
Silva advanced just over the halfway line before picking out Diogo Jota, who took the ball down on his chest and teed up Ronaldo to tap home from close range.
It was a sensational counter-attack at the Allianz Arena, and Ronaldo sprinted the length of the pitch in superhuman fashion to start and finish it.
The Portugal captain is clearly showing no signs of slowing down at the age of 36, defying his years by running from one end of the pitch to the other in 17 seconds.
Germany instead rallied back to record their first win of the tournament, with own goals from Ruben Dias and Raphael Guerreiro ensuring they went in at the break 2-1 ahead.
Kai Havertz then tucked the ball home to hand them a two-goal cushion six minutes into the second half.
And Robin Gosens’ strike on the hour mark sealed the rout for Joachim Low’s side.
Jota pulled one back for Portugal seven minutes later to set up an intriguing end to the game, but it failed to spark what would have been a miraculous comeback and Germany instead ran out comfortable winners in the end.
It’s all still to play for in the final group outing next Wednesday, which will see Portugal lock horns with leaders France and Germany take on Hungary.
France sit top of the group on four points, one clear of Germany and Portugal, with Hungary bottom of the pile on a single point.
