The goalkeeping miracle from the Euro was taught to Dioga Costa by the former ‘fiery’!

Portuguese media reports the story as it is Cristiano Ronaldo on Monday night in the lobby of the stadium in Frankfurt and hugged him Dioga Costo and, as the captain and leader of the national team, thanked him in front of everyone for taking them to the Euro quarterfinals with his defenses. And indeed, regardless of the dominance and as many as 20 shots against the fantastic Jan Oblakit was Costa who kept Portugal alive.

After defending well the entire game, he took off his zicer Benjamin Sešek in the 115th minute, and then saved all three penalties in the shootout, Iličiću, Balkovac i Verbču, and thus sent the unfortunate Slovenians home, and gave Ronaldo another chance to score a goal at his sixth, and by all accounts, last Euro. On the previous five occasions, Ronaldo scored, on this one he hasn’t, not even from the penalty, which was saved by Oblak. Now the French are waiting for them…

And while Costa spent most of the match watching Oblak’s show on the other side of the field, in the second overtime he saved Portugal, he saved Zicer from going through with a fantastic save, he extended his left leg and deflected Šeško’s shot, with whom he found himself face to face, one on one, in the 115th minute.

– I thought ‘I have to stop this’, I tried to read his body language and, luckily, I managed to help my friend. That’s part of my job – said Costa calmly after the match and added:

– This was probably the best match in my life, and as for the shootout, we analyzed how the opposing players shoot penalties, but the games change, the way of shooting also changes. I followed my instinct and guessed…

– Diogo is an incredible goalkeeper, a well-kept secret in Portugal. I have worked with several very good goalkeepers, but he is among the best. Maturity and experience, which means a lot to us, and he will be the mainstay of Portugal for years – said the Portuguese coach. Roberto Martinez.

The goalkeeper of Porto is a hero of the nation, and he has a very important role in his career Vedran Runje (48). The quiet and self-effacing former Croatian national team player has been working as Porto’s goalkeeper coach for three years, and it was after his arrival that Diogo got his chance and became a standard player.

Runja was invited to Porto by his former teammateč from Standard, legendary Sergio Conceicao. He needed a reliable goalkeeper coach in the starting line-up and invited Runja, with whom he shared the locker room.

Runje was working at Royal Antwerp at the time and immediately accepted the invitation, and he saw great potential in the young Diogo Costa. He decided to take a risk and give it a chance and… it worked.

Costa defended well, Porto grew and the young and talented goalkeeper reached the price of 40 million euros before the Euros. There is no doubt that, after breaking the European Championship record with three saved penalties in the shootout, his price will increase further and it is not impossible that the 24-year-old, whom Porto pays 1.5 million euros per year, will be bought by someone from richer clubs.

And that penalties are Costa’s specialty is also confirmed by the fact that he saved 13 out of 42 penalties in his career, so almost every third one, and two years ago he saved three penalties in a row in three Champions League games. No one before him could do it.

At one time, he also spoke about Costa’s talent Iker Casillas,former legendary goalkeeper of Spain and Real, who finished his club career in Porto.

– Don’t worry about my successor, he is older. in Porto and his name is Diogo Costa. Be patient, he will be a top goalkeeper – Casillas said six years ago.