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Euro 2012 – Portugal Beats Netherlands 2-1

Posted on June 18, 2012

By Sandra Birungi

Sunday night saw Netherlands leave the UEFA Euro 2012 championships and pave way for Portugal to enter the quarter finals.

The game which took place in Kharkiv in Ukraine saw Portugal beat Netherlands, 2-1. Cristiano Ronaldo scored both goals taking his country to the quarter finals.

“Ronaldo got so much criticism in the last game and he is back now,” Netherlands coach Bert van Marwijk said. “That is how fast things can change.”

Ronaldo scored his second goal after receiving a pass from former teammate in Manchester United, Nani.”This was our best game so far,” Portugal coach Paulo Bento said, declining to single out Ronaldo. “What is most important is that we kept fighting after we lost our opening game.

Portugal will now face Czech Republic in Thursday’s opening quarter-final. Praising his team, Ronaldo said, “The team was spectacular. They should be congratulated. We deserve this passage to the quarter-finals, because we always believed it was possible. We only think game to game. Our goal was to get past the first stage. We were able to and now everything is possible. We will have an extremely difficult game against the Czech Republic and both sides will have a 50% chance.”

Midfielder Miguel Veloso concurred, saying: “It was a great victory. Once more we showed great organization and unity of the group. We had to defend and only a great team could come through and turn around the result after the Netherlands had scored. We should be congratulated on this brilliant victory. Once more, all united, we played really well.”

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