On Wednesday afternoon, Portugal notched their first win of the Euro 2012 tournament with an exciting 3-2 triumph over Denmark. Thanks to a late 87th-minute goal by Varela, Portugal is tied for first in their group along with Denmark and Germany, who play later today against the Netherlands.
If you don’t have cable, it can be tough finding a way to catch the matches. But YouTube users are quick to commemorate the highlights by editing them into bite-sized clips on the video-sharing service.
Below are all the goals in order they occurred:
Pepe heads in the first goal of the game at minute 24, thanks to an impressive corner from João Moutinho. The ball is placed perfectly in the top left area of the net past Danish goalkeep William Kvist:
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Then in the 36th minute, Portugal stormed into the Danish zone and took advantage of a bad clear and made Denmark pay. Hélder Postiga meets the low cross at the near post on the right, finishing smoothly by guiding the ball into the top right corner with his first touch:
Shortly after, Bendtner from Denmark scored one with his head as he tapped in Michael Krohn-Dehli’s header across goal from close range:
Now 2-1, the match got intense and quite tight. Ronaldo had a glorious chance to put Portugal up by two with a breakaway goal but he struck it just wide. The below clip captures that mistake and then Denmark’s tying goal moments later: Bendtner once again hurt Portugal with a header, striking the ball past the desperate dive of Rui Patricio:
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(just the goal, with sound)
Tied 2-2, this nail-biter was broken late in the 87th-minute when Varela made good on a cross after fumbling at first. He hits a bouncing ball into the net’s corner to give Portugal a 3-2 lead.
That took the wind out of Denmark and Portugal ended up winning this close match.
Portugal next faces the Netherlands on Sunday. Denmark squares off against Germany the same day.
