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Euro 2024 Moment of the Day: Diogo Costa's heroics lift Ronaldo and Portugal

DANIEL ROLAND/AFP via Getty Images

This is it you're thinking.

Cristiano Ronaldo has already seen an extra time penalty saved brilliantly by Jan Oblak and has broken down in tears at the break. Now his old friend had just made a mistake just as big. Hassled by Zan Celar, Pepe has miskicked a pass straight to Benjamin Sesko, and the forward is through on goal.

114:23 on the clock and Slovenia have the game in their hands. Scorer of 14 goals in his debut season in the Bundesliga, Sesko is Slovenia's star outfield player and if there's anyone the underdogs want on the ball in this situation, it's him. Three touches and he's clear of everyone in Portugal red and green. Acres of space, loads of time. Mighty Portugal are teetering on the brink.

Before taking the fourth, Sesko looks up, sees Diogo Costa has backpedalled into his box, opens his body up and calmly strokes it to the keeper's left...

Now, Costa has been shaky before for Portugal in major tournament football. At the 2022 World Cup, he almost gifted Ghana a late equaliser and was partly at fault for the Morocco goal that sent them out in the quarters. In Euro 2024, though, he hasn't had much to do.

In this particular pre-quarterfinal, all he's had to do is collect a Sesko tester from range (hit right at him) and sweep up behind his defence a couple of times. He's barely been in the game, and that's usually when a keeper is at his most vulnerable.

So it's natural to think this is it. For Portugal. For Ronaldo. For Pepe. Except, it isn't. Costa somehow sticks out his left leg just in time -- his body now in a split -- and saves it brilliantly. Single-handedly he's dragged Portugal off the edge of the cliff.

Costa's decision-making in the one-on-one is exemplary. Most keepers would have panicked and rushed out, making Sesko's decision for him. But by backtracking into the box, he's given the finisher more time to think (or from Costa's point of view, for Sesko to overthink). Standing straight with his legs slightly spread, he makes no move, forcing Sesko to make the choice and once that's done, shows just how ridiculously good his reflexes are. Known more for his skill with ball at feet, Costa has just proven how good a shot stopper he is.

On a normal day, this would be it. One cracking save to keep your team's hopes in this competition - and the legacy of your nation's greatest player -- afloat. But Costa isn't having a normal day. A save-of-the-tournament isn't enough. Cue a penalty shootout performance for the ages.

• A full-length dive to his left, to stop Josip Ilicic.

• A full-length dive to his right, to stop Jure Balkovec.

• A full-length dive to his right again, this time to stop Benjamin Verbic.

Three penalties faced, three saved. The first men's goalkeeper to save three penalties in a European Championship shootout. The first to do that while also not conceding a goal in the 120 minutes prior in either a Euro or a World Cup match. Unprecedented.

Meanwhile, Ronaldo made amends with a clinical penalty dispatched to the bottom corner, Bruno Fernandes Bruno Fernandes-ed one in and Bernardo Silva sent Oblak the wrong way to seal a 3-0 win on penalties.

But there was no doubting who the star was. Diogo Costa walked into the shootout, that fiefdom of goalkeepers, and made the match his.

For owning the shootout, and for pulling off the save of the tournament to take the game that far, Diogo Costa takes our Moment of the Day from day 16 of Euro 2024.