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Ronny inspires Portugal

Cristiano Ronaldo scored one and laid on two more as Portugal beat Czech Republic 3-1 in Vienna’s Stade de Geneve.

/noticias.info/ The result - combined with Turkey's later victory over Switzerland - seals Portugal’s passage to the Euro 2008 quarter-finals, although Luiz Felipe Scolari’s side were pushed to their limits by a plucky Czech outfit.

From the opening moments, Ronaldo was at the heart of Portugal’s attacking output and on eight minutes caused havoc in the Czech penalty area. The Reds winger was half-thwarted, but the ball fell to Deco, who rounded Petr Cech before firing home from close range.

The lead lasted just nine minutes, Libor Sionko crashing home a header to level scores.

Cech then did well to keep out a vicious left-foot effort from Ronaldo, while Deco and Armando Petit also tried their luck from distance. Milan Baros looked busy up front for the Czech Republic, but failed to ask too many questions of the Portuguese defence.

Ronaldo, who netted 42 times for United last season, notched his first of the tournament on 63 minutes to put Portugal in front once more. This time Deco was the provider, feeding Ronaldo on the edge of the box, who fired into the bottom corner.

And it was Ronny who was at the heart of his side’s third, scored in injury time after a period of Czech dominance had threatened to rain on Portugal’s parade. Sent clear by a quickly taken free-kick, Ronaldo drew Cech off his line before squaring unselfishly for Ricardo Quaresma to tap home. notas_de_prensa_archivo