Tens of thousands of Portuguese crowded the Marques de Pombal square throughout the night to celebrate the country’s first European Cup, 12 years after suffering the Euro 2004 final loss against Greece on home soil.

 

Passionate fans chanted “Portugal Allez” (Go Portugal), sang the Portuguese national anthem and emulated Ronaldo’s characteristic “siiuhh” when he won his third Ballon d’Or in 2014.

 

Following the 1-0 victory against hosts France at the Stade de France in Paris, thanks to Guinea-Bissau-born Eder’s extra time winner in the 109th minute, thousands of supporters marched from Terreiro de Paco square where they watched the match on a giant screen to the Marques de Pombal Square.

 

The site, located in the business district of Lisbon, is the meeting point for the celebrations of the two biggest soccer clubs in Lisbon, Benfica and Sporting.

 

The streets adjacent to the square were closed to traffic while hundreds of drivers honked their horns incessantly on those roads which remained open.

 

In the remaining Portuguese cities, the euphoria was also present such as in the Avenida dos Aliados in Porto.

 

In total, there were more than twenty giant screens in other Portuguese cities for fans to watch the final against France.

 

Eder, an anonymous hero from Guinea-Bissau who came to the Euro championship almost as a substitute on the Portuguese roster, on Sunday made history for Portugal by notching the only goal of the tourney final against their hosts at the Stade de France in Saint Denis before some 76,000 spectators.

 

The forward, who plays for Lille OSC, fired his tournament-winning shot from outside the area in the 109th minute, ending a match in which a significantly dominant France was unable to capitalize on the fact that a weeping Cristiano Ronaldo had asked to leave the pitch in the 25th minute due to injury.

 

Thus, there was no Ronaldo-Griezmann duel, as had been anticipated before play began. The Real Madrid forward was hit in the knee twice over a few minutes and found that he could not continue, being replaced by Ricardo Quaresma in the 25th minute after having only touched the ball on eight occasions.

 

France tried to apply the same plan it had used to knock out Germany and Iceland – high precision and speed – and right from the start it had Portugal on the defensive, dominating play, but the first half ended scoreless.

 

And not much changed in the second half either, with the French squad depending on Matuidi and Sissoko while Portugal’s Pepe provided leadership as the team defended tenaciously, slowed the game down and tried to survive until they could put together some kind of scoring combination.

 

With regulation time exhausted and the teams tied at null, an overtime session was implemented after injury time and it was then that Eder fired his blast that salvaged the match for Portugal and defender Pepe said, “We said we would win it for (Ronaldo). And we managed to win it for him.”

 

Present for the match were the presidents of France and Portugal, Francois Hollande and Marcelo Rebelo de Souza, respectively, along with the prime ministers of the two countries – Manuel Valls and Antonio Costa – as well as FIFA president Gianni Infantino and the first vice president of UEFA, Angel Maria Villar

 

Lisbon, Jul 11 (EFE)