Cristiano Ronaldo was the star of the show yet again, as the Portugal captain netted the only goal of the game to give his side a deserved 1-0 win over the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals of Euro 2012.
Ronaldo scored a brilliant header off Joao Moutinho's cross in the 79th minute, in a game which was dominated by the Portuguese. The Real Madrid forward also hit the post twice and had a decent penalty shout turned down.
The Czech Republic, starting without captain Tomas Rosicky because of an achilles injury, began well, but missed the cutting edge, which would have been provided by the injured Arsenal playmaker. The Portuguese, slowly but surely, got into the game and once they were on the front foot, they never looked back.
Ronaldo first forced a nice save from goalkeeper Petr Cech, before going close with an overhead kick. The Real Madrid forward, then almost scored a spectacular goal, when he controlled the ball with his chest, swivelled around his marker and struck the ball past Cech, only to see it come crashing off the base of the post.
At the start of the second half, Hugo Almeida, who came on for the injured Helder Postiga in the first half, headed just over from 12 yards before Ronaldo was denied by the woodwork again. The 27-year-old's 30-yard free-kick shaved the outside of the post, with Cech well beaten.
Portugal finally broke through, and it was no surprise it was their best player who found the goal. A nice cross from the excellent Moutinho on the right was wonderfully met by Ronaldo, who saw his downward header carry too much power for Cech to stop.
Ronaldo then had a valid penalty claim turned down by English referee Howard Webb, after the former Manchester United man was brought down inside the box by Theodor Gebre Selassie.
Portugal, however, held on and will now face the winners of the match between Spain and France.
Ronaldo was visibly happy after the match. "We created many chances and hit the post, but it is brilliant for us to have passed into the semi-finals," he told BBC.
"We know it is going to be difficult, but we are ready, we are confident. We are very mature, so we are ready for the fight."
Portugal coach Paulo Bento felt his side deserved the win. "We did not start the match well in attack for the first 25 minutes, then we showed a great response in the second half, a great capacity to respond to the Czechs and that is why we really deserved this victory," Bento told reporters after the match.
"We had prepared ourselves in the best possible way for their strategy. We knew they would try to defend very deeply and would press against us on the counter-attack, because they have very quick players who are good technically.
"As the game went on we controlled the match, we played better and had more chances to create our own game.
Bento said his side would be ready for either Spain or France. "In the semi-finals of a tournament like this, there are always great teams with different characteristics who are well organised with players of great quality," he said.
"We do not prefer anybody. Our aim will be to win against France or Spain. There cannot be any other goal for us.
"It has been a lot of work by us to reach the semi-finals and we will try to recover to reach the pitch in the best condition. We will show the response which is necessary."
