So far, the delayed 2020 European Championship has lived up to the hype, with some fantastic performances, both team and individual, on show.
As we go deeper into the competition with more at stake for either side, the intensity and pressure is bound to affect results.
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That certainly appeared to be the case in the Portugal v Belgium game, with Cristiano Ronaldo’s histrionics at the end of the game showing what a sore loser he really is.
Rather than condemn such childish behaviour from his player, Portugal coach, Fernando Santos, attempted to disguise it in an excuse of the his side’s exit from the tournament being unfair.
“I think it is unfair but this is football,” he was quoted as saying by the Daily Mirror.
“If you score you win – they scored, we didn’t. But apart form the first 10 minutes when we didn’t play that well, my players played with a strong mentality and tried to attack.
“We wanted the ball. We had 29 shots and couldn’t score one. They had six shots and one on target and they won.
“We hit the post and carried on being dangerous but the ball wouldn’t go in. We kept our heads up and kept thinking we could turn things but this is football. Sometimes we have had fewer chances and won.”
The fact is that, when given multiple opportunities in the match, Portugal’s players weren’t up to the simple task of putting the ball into the back of the net.
That’s not unfair, that’s players not performing at their best and getting punished for it.