Key events
17 min: … so Nuno Mendes reaches the end of his tether and lashes an impatient shot from a daft distance. High and wide. The Czechs perfectly happy about that, and it’s far too early for Portugal to be getting frustrated.
16 min: Portugal pass the ball hither and yon. No way through. Six white shirts lined up along the edge of the area.
14 min: Souček comes through the back of Bruno Fernandes when contesting a high ball. A garden-variety foul in the midfield and a free kick. Fernandes not happy, and not slow in giving both Souček and the referee the what-for. They pretty much ignore him.
12 min: Leão jinks past Coufal down the left with absurd ease. He reaches the byline but miscontrols before he can cut the ball back for Ronaldo. The Czechs clear their lines.
10 min: Portugal are seeing most of the ball. The Czechs happy enough to sit back and soak things up. Then suddenly a long pass down the Czech right for Provod, who makes it past a lumbering Pepe only to carelessly clank the ball out for a goal kick. Portugal momentarily exposed there.
8 min: Leão latches onto a loose ball in midfield and races down the left. He chops infield and crosses, and this time there’s somebody in red there: it’s Ronaldo, whose first touch of the evening, a header, goes wide left. Portugal again looking dangerous down the left.
6 min: Nuno Mendes slips a pass down the left in the hope of springing Leão clear. Hranac is forced to slide in and concede a corner. Nothing comes of the set piece, but Portugal have now launched three promising attacks down this wing.
4 min: More space for Portugal down the left. This time it’s Bruno Fernandes who loops a cross into an otherwise empty box. The Czechs counter and Šulc tries to work some space to shoot by the left-hand edge of the Portuguese D. He’s crowded out before he can take a whack.
3 min: Leão and Fernandes exchange passes down the inside-left channel, the latter then releasing Bernardo Silva into the box. Silva crosses to nobody in particular and the ball sails out for a goal kick. Both teams looking lively in these very early exchanges.
1 min: The Czechs on the front foot early doors, with Schick and Souček making a nuisance of themselves down the right. For a second it looks as though they’ve combined to open Portugal up, but the ball rolls out for a goal kick.
Portugal get the ball rolling. If this is half as good as the Turkey-Georgia show, we’ll be doing very well. Goals, please!
Cristiano Ronaldo may be pushing 40, but he wore the bubbly expression of a super-excited teenager during the Portuguese anthem. A huge grin playing across his face as he belted out the lyrics. Then a lusty scream of COME ON! All signs are that he’s well up for this.
The teams are out! Plenty of noise and passion at the RB Arena. Portugal in red with green-and-black edging, Czechia in white with blue trim. Anthems are sung: paeans to the voice of distinguished forefathers that shall lead Portugal to victory, of the pinewoods rustling among the rocks in the beautiful Czech homeland, a paradise on earth no less. Some positive branding right there. We’ll be off in a couple of minutes, once pennants are exchanged and coins are tossed.
In the meantime, here’s a prediction from John Moloney: “The refereeing has been pretty good so far, would you say? I wonder how much the new rules about who is allowed to whine and harass the referee have helped – seems to me they are working quite well so far. But tonight is the acid test, surely? Bruno Fernandes, without the captain’s get-out-of-jail-free card, is going to last about 15 minutes, isn’t he? Looking forward to seeing what happens already.”
The first wave of group fixtures comes to an end here, and as of now there still hasn’t been a goalless game. Hopefully we can complete the set without a blemish, and the fact the lines are being led tonight by Cristiano Ronaldo and Patrik Schick augurs well: the pair were the joint top scorers last time round at Euro 2020. Ronaldo won the Golden Boot by dint of one extra assist.
Earlier today in Group F, this happened …
… in which Arda Güler of Turkey broke Cristiano Ronaldo’s 20-year-old record to become the youngest player to score on their Euro finals debut. The ‘Turkish Messi’ is 19 years and 114 days old; Ronaldo was a comparatively creaky 19 years and 128 days when he scored a late consolation against Greece in the opener of Euro 2004. It all means the group looks like this ahead of tonight’s game in Leipzig.
Both of these countries have identical records at the business end of the Euros. Portugal won the title in 2016 and were runners-up in 2004; the Czechs came second in 1996 and lifted the trophy (as Czechoslovakia) in 1976. The Portuguese have the upper hand in the head-to-head since the Czech Republic became a separate country, though. Karel Poborský’s famous scoop decided the Euro 96 quarter-final, but since then it’s been four wins in a row for Portugal, at Euro 2008, Euro 2012 and in the 2022-23 Nations League.
Cristiano Ronaldo (39) and Pepe (41) start for Portugal. Both break records tonight: Ronaldo will appear in his sixth European Championship finals, while Pepe, at 41 years and 113 days, becomes the oldest player in the 64-year history of the tournament. Pepe will beat the record held by Gabor Kiraly, who was 40 years and 86 days old when keeping goal for Hungary in their Euro 2016 last-16 defeat by Belgium. Manchester City are represented by Bernardo Silva and Rúben Dias, Manchester United by Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot.
West Ham midfielder Tomáš Souček captains the Czechs. Like City and United, the Hammers have two players starting tonight’s match: Vladimír Coufal lines up on the right-hand side of midfield.
The teams
Portugal: Costa, Dias, Pepe, Nuno Mendes, Dalot, Bruno Fernandes, Vitinha, Joao Cancelo, Bernardo Silva, Ronaldo, Leao.
Subs: Rui Patricio, Nelson Semedo, Joao Palhinha, Goncalo Ramos, Joao Felix, Jose Sa, Danilo Pereira, Inacio, Joao Neves, Matheus Luiz, Ruben Neves, Jota, Silva, Pedro Neto, Francisco Conceicao.
Czech Republic: Stanek, Hranac, Krejci, Holes, Soucek, Coufal, Provod, Sulc, Doudera, Schick, Kuchta.
Subs: Zima, Vitik, Barak, Sevcik, Hlozek, Chytil, David Jurasek, Kovar, Cerny, Chory, Lingr, Cerv, Jaros, Vlcek, Matej Jurasek.
Referee: Marco Guida (Italy).
Preamble
The opening wave of fixtures concludes as Portugal and the Czech Republic finally get a kick of the ball. Should be good. It gets underway at 8pm. It’s on.
