Portugal full-back Cedric Soares revealed a
stricken Cristiano Ronaldo issued a rallying call to his team-mates at
half-time in the 1-0 Euro 2016 final win over France.
Fernando
Santos' team claimed a first major international honour for their country when
substitute Eder fired a superb extra-time winner to stun an expectant Stade de
France.
Their
hopes appeared to suffer a terminal blow early in the match when Ronaldo
suffered a knee injury in a challenge with France midfielder DimitriPayet.
The
Real Madrid superstar twice attempted to play through the pain after receiving
treatment but admitted defeat in his personal battle after 25 minutes.
Nevertheless,
Ronaldo dried his tears and sought to focus his colleagues on the task at hand
during the interval, before spending the rest of the match as a notably
animated figure on the touchline.
"It
was a very, very tough moment. It was a really tough moment for me and for the
team," Cedric said of Ronaldo's injury. "I think everybody was a
little bit in shock but at half-time Cristiano had fantastic words with us.
"He gave us a lot of confidence and he
said, 'Listen people, I'm sure we will win this Euro so stay together and fight
for it'.
"It
was unbelievable. All the team had a fantastic attitude and showed that when
you fight as one you are much much stronger.
"He
was fantastic. His attitude was unbelievable. At half-time he helped a lot, our
colleagues, he had always a lot of motivational words. All the team reacted to
them so it was very, very good."
Portugal
survived some near misses after the interval as tournament top scorer Antoine
Griezmann headed a glorious 65th-minute chance over before Andre-Pierre Gignac
struck the post during stoppage time.
Ronaldo's
replacement Ricardo Quaresma drew strength from French profligacy and Portugal
appeared the more dangerous side in extra time before Eder's emphatic
breakthrough.
"When
I saw them missing one, two, three chances, it only made me believe even more
that if we had an opportunity, we could win the game," Quaresma said.
"In
the end, we worked hard and we achieved it. We are very happy.
"We
knew that working hard all together, we would have a good chance. It's a moment
of pride, a moment of joy because we have written our names down in
history."
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