Cristiano Ronaldo had to watch in agony as Spain entered their second-straight European championship final on Wednesday. Fabregas scored off Spain's fifth spot-kick to send Spain through 4-2, before Ronaldo could even step up. The Portuguese captain admitted he had accepted the responsibility of taking the fifth penalty.

"I was going to take the fifth penalty but we missed two," Ronaldo told reporters after the game.

"It was just a question of me speaking with the coach. He said to me: 'Do you want to take the fifth one?' and I said yes.

"Sometimes I take the first, the second or the third. I agreed to take the fifth.

"I feel sad. Losing a semi-final in the penalty shootout is always painful, but it is a lottery.

"I think it was a good tournament on our part. We did very well. We are amongst the best four teams in Europe and the only reason we do not reach the final is because we were not lucky."

Ronaldo said he would now be supporting Spain in the final. The defending champs will meet the winners of the match between Germany and Italy.

"I hope Spain win the tournament now because I have a lot friends there and I play there and it will be a tough final for them.

"It felt very normal playing against Real Madrid players. On the pitch we are not friends, but outside we are."

Portugal coach Paulo Bento defended his decision to leave Ronaldo to take the final spot-kick. "We had this plan," the 43-year-old said.

"If it would have been 4-4 and he would have taken the last penalty, we would be talking in a different way.

"In my opinion we have played a very good tournament.

"If you don't have this little bit of luck then you miss it. We didn't have much luck in this game."

Fabregas was over the moon after his side's victory and revealed he had a premonition that he would score the winning penalty.

"I had intuition and wanted the fifth penalty," the Barcelona midfielder, who scored Spain's winning penalty in Euro 2008 against Italy, said after the match.

"I told (assistant coach) Toni Grande I thought I could repeat that great moment.

"They told me initially to take the second one but I said no give me the fifth as I had this premonition.

The former Arsenal playmaker was seen speaking to the ball before taking his penalty. "I think I've talked to the ball, I do not know what I said to the ball.

"I think I said to the ball that we had to make history and it shouldn't let me down."

Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque admitted Spain rode their luck against Portugal, in a match which saw Portugal dominate for longer periods. "We had loads of luck in the penalties," Del Bosque told a news conference.

"But I want to express my congratulations to the Portuguese side because they played a great tournament, but we were luckier, we really had all the luck this time."