Portugal goalkeeper Diogo Costa had a great day against Slovenia in the round of 16 of Euro 2024.

Correct Ronaldo and Pepe

The Porto player only had 2 saves in 120 minutes, but one of them helped the home team narrowly escape defeat.

In the 115th minute, he “corrected” his senior Pepe after a dangerous situation of losing the ball. Facing a high-class striker like Benjamin Sesko, Costa calmly used his foot to push the ball at the moment when it seemed like a goal had come.

Not only did he correct Pepe’s mistakes, this goalkeeper also indirectly “saved” Cristiano Ronaldo when the star previously missed a penalty kick.

The score was tied 0-0, Portugal and Slovenia entered the shootout. And here, the goalkeeper born in 1999 continues to play the role of hero.

He won in turn against Josip Ilicic, Jure Balkovec and Benjamin Verbic. Meanwhile, his teammates Cristiano Ronaldo, Bruno Fernades and Bernardo Silva made no mistakes to help Portugal win 3-0 and get a ticket to the quarterfinals of Euro 2024.

As for Diogo Costa, he also received the title of Best Player of the match.

Expert in taking penalties

The performance in the recent match once again affirmed the penalty-saving talent of the goalkeeper born in 1999. In his entire career to date (excluding Euro 2024), Diogo Costa has successfully saved penalties 10 times. .

9 of those times came in the colors of Porto’s youth team and first team. The other time was when he played for the Portuguese U15 team.

From the beginning of Euro 2024 until now, Diogo has always maintained a stable performance. The Portuguese goalkeeper played all 4 matches, made 6 saves and kept 2 clean sheets at Euro 2024.

This has proven the talent of one of the most expensive goalkeepers in the world.

Diogo Costa is valued by transfermarkt at 40 million Euros, equal to Gianluigi Donnarumma (Italy, PSG) and Gregor Kobel (Switzerland, Dortmund).

Portugal will certainly have to rely on Diogo Costa’s talent if they want to go far at Euro 2024. Especially in the context that they will have to face the French team in the quarterfinals on July 6.

Portugal shot twice as hard as Slovenia but only won thanks to a penalty shootout

In the confrontation in the round of 16 of Euro 2024 on the morning of July 2, Portugal dominated possession, took twice as many shots as Slovenia, but only won thanks to a penalty shootout.