The European Football Championship is a tournament that everyone around the world follows. It is not surprising, because it features the best players of our time. If you are interested in the matches of national teams, go to Afropari link. All their matches are available here.
The Euro 2024 was a tournament with a lot of interesting matches and new achievements. One of the records belongs to the goalkeeper of the Portuguese national team Diogo Costa. He became a real hero of the match against Slovenia in ⅛ of the final of the European Championship.
So, the main and extra time of that meeting ended with the score 0:0. In the course of the match, Costa repeatedly saved his team. However, his real specialty was the penalty shootout. The goalkeeper saved all three of the Slovenians’ shots. Portugal confidently realized all their penalties and passed to the next stage of the tournament.
As for Costa, he didn’t just help his team move on. The Portuguese became the first goalkeeper in European Championship history to convert three penalties in a penalty shootout. Thanks to this, he entered the history of the tournament.
Despite the fact that the shots were difficult, the goalkeeper confidently parried them. By doing so, he gave hope to his partners. At the decisive moment, they were able to pull themselves together and get a ticket to the next round of the competition.
The main strengths of the Portuguese goalkeeper
Even before the start of the tournament, Costa was talked about as a potential Euro hero. However, he showed his best in the game against Slovenia. It was one of the highlights of the tournament. And if you still want to follow the national team matches, go to link to start playing Afropari. It is easy to convert your knowledge into real rewards here.
Returning to Costa and his record, we can note that the goalkeeper managed to enter the history of European Championships due to:
- The ability to calculate the trajectory of the ball’s flight. In fact, the Slovenians performed their shots not so badly. However, Costa’s brilliant reaction was a real X-factor for Portugal. He coped even with the most difficult kicks.
- Pre-match preparation. The goalkeeper has been practicing penalty kicks, and it came in handy for him in that meeting.
- Psychological pressure on the opponents. There was a feeling that they knew in advance that they would miss. Costa influenced them in such a way that the Slovenians had little chance of scoring.
Thus, the Portuguese goalkeeper became the undisputed main hero of that meeting and managed to make history in continental championships. With such a goalkeeper, the defense can feel confident.
