Portugal coach Fernando Santos declared himself satisfied with a 3-0 win over Hungary in their Group F opener despite leaving it late to make the breakthrough.
In front of a crowd of 61,000 at the Puskas Arena in Budapest the hosts’ defensive resilience kept the defending champions at bay and it was only a deflected Raphael Guerreiro shot which broke the deadlock.
Cristiano Ronaldo then made European Championship history with his 10th – from the penalty spot – and 11th goals at the finals to go past Michel Platini’s record of nine, all of which were scored in the 1984 edition.
“It’s difficult to get goals, it is not an easy task,” said Santos.
“I think we played well, it was more than a fair win. We played great in the first half, we were in full control of the game but second half we were a bit anxious.
“Everyone on the pitch wanted to win and when that is the case sometimes it can get a little anxious and we allowed them to strike on the counter.
“The first goal unlocked the gate because after that Hungary had to open up and that’s how our creative players found their way into the game.
“I think it was good enough, we won 3-0.”
Hungary boss Marco Rossi felt the scoreline flattered Portugal.
“The fact we conceded three goals in the space of 10 minutes leaves me very disappointed,” he said.
“You can concede a goal, that was just a double deflection which was rather unfortunate, but you need to be able to bounce back.
“We came apart at the seams and that was my fault as I made some changes which clearly didn’t work and I hold my hands up for all of that.
“I am very disappointed by the result, not the performance, as up until the 84th minute I thought we did very well.
“There could be a three-goal deficit between Portugal and ourselves but not necessarily on what we saw today.”
