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The joint top scorers from last European Championship will go up against each other when Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal take on Patrik Schick’s Czech Republic in their Euro 2024 Group F opener at the Red Bull Arena in Leipzig.
Ronaldo and Schick both scored five goals in the 2020 European Championship, which was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, and they are likely to carry the team’s goal burden this time around.
The tournament could prove to be Ronaldo’s international swan song, although the 39-year-old appears as hungry for goals and praise as ever as he prepares to begin his sixth European Championship on Tuesday.
While he may have left Europe’s elite to play in Saudi Arabia, men’s international football’s top scorer’s goalscoring instincts appear as sharp as ever.
Al Nasr was the second-highest scorer in qualifying last season with 10 goals and has 35 goals in 31 league games, with the seemingly ageless Ronaldo warming up for this World Cup by scoring twice in the final friendly against Ireland.
Although Ronaldo lifted the trophy in 2016, he may still have a sense of unfinished business on the international stage.
He missed most of the final eight years ago through injury but failed to help Portugal to further glory at back-to-back World Cups and Euro 2020, when they were knocked out in the last 16.
This is one of Portugal’s most brilliant generations but with Cristiano Ronaldo and 41-year-old defender Pepe in the twilight of their careers, Euro 2024 has the feel of a last hurrah.
With a talented squad, Portugal will be one of the best teams in Germany on paper. They won all 10 of their 10 qualifying games, scoring 36 goals and conceding 2.
However, their head coach Roberto Martinez, who knows all too well the pitfalls of leading a group of extremely talented players at an international tournament, failed to turn Belgium’s so-called “golden generation” into tournament winners.
However, Martinez also knows that he is probably at his best against Ronaldo.
“We have 23 players. We create competitiveness and the games decide,” he said earlier this month. “But Cristiano wants to help the team and give everything he can. There is no other player in football who can bring the quality of Cristiano to the dressing room.”
Schick, who won the Goal of the Tournament award at Euro 2020 with his stunning strike from midfield against Scotland, will coach a Czech side with very different expectations.
The Czechs finished second in qualifying behind Albania and won four of their eight games in a group with Poland, Moldova and the Faroe Islands.
They struggled to find the net with Schick missing for the final qualifying round, but he appears to have shaken off the injuries that held him back after winning the Bundesliga title with Leverkusen.
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