Stad de France in Paris is not a good place to play the final of a major international tournament for anyone named Ronaldo. Back in 1998, before the FIFA World final between France and Brazil, Ronaldo Nazario was injured before the final and played nevertheless. However, the Brazilian didn’t make any difference despite his inclusion and ended up on the losing side. Eighteen years later in the very same stadium, Cristiano Ronaldo suffers a heartbreak in the final of Euro 2016. The Portuguese captain who is the main man for his country had to be taken off on a stretcher in the 25th minute of the final against France.
Ronaldo was injured early in the game after Dimitri Payet tackled him and took the ball cleanly. Despite being a clean tackle, the follow up caught Ronaldo on the knee and he went down immediately clutching his knee. The 31-year old received some treatment from the physios and returned to the pitch quickly.
Minutes later, the play had to be stopped as Ronaldo was down on the pitch clutching his knee and crying as he knew his dream of winning a title with Portugal was in jeopardy. The Real Madrid man received further treatment for several minutes before coming back on the pitch to try and help his team, however, the pain was too much to handle even for someone as fit and dedicated as Ronaldo.
The Portuguese captain couldn’t walk off the pitch and had to be carried off the pitch on a stretcher and he was crying his heart out in disappointment. Ronaldo is Portugal’s leading goal scorer in Euro 2016 along with Nani and he passed the captain’s armband to his former Manchester United teammate before leaving the pitch.
Ronaldo was one of the members of the Portugal side that lost the final of Euro 2004 to the underdogs Greece at home and he would have been hoping to make up for that final heartbreak in Paris on Sunday night against the hosts France.
While Ronaldo was down injured on the pitch, a moth landed on his eyelash to take the spotlight away from Ronaldo for a few seconds. The massive invasion from the moths was a topic of discussion before the game as they were everywhere inside the stadium. The moth invasion happened because the lights in the stadium were left on overnight. Thanks to that, one moth got his shortcut to fame.
