Portugal struck late in the second half to secure a come-from-behind 2-1 victory over Czech Republic in their EURO 2024 opener on Tuesday night.
Ronaldo had already made history just by stepping on the pitch as he became the first player to feature at six European Championships, while Pepe became the oldest at 41-year-old.
Roberto Martinez's charges controlled matters early on but had to wait until the 20-minute mark when Bruno Fernandes' well-weighted cross missed Rafael Leao's foot by a few inches.
Portugal went even closer after 31 minutes when Fernandes turned provider once again, this time playing a fine pass to pick out Ronaldo, who was denied by a great stop by Jindrich Stanek.
While the Czechs failed to offer anything at the other end, Stanek was called upon to make another save on the stroke of half as he did well to keep out a powerful strike from Ronaldo just inside the box.
The deadlock was broken just after the hour mark as the Czechs stunned Portugal by taking the lead through Luka Provod's stunning strike from distance that sailed into the top corner.
However, Portugal were gifted the equaliser seven minutes later via an own from Robin Hranac after Stanek parried the ball into his teammate in the six-yard area.
Substitute Diogo Jota had the ball in the back of the net in the 86th minute with a close-range header but the celebrations were cut short after Ronaldo was deemed offside in the build-up by the Video Assistant Referee (VAR).
Portugal did go on to bag the winning goal when Francisco Conceicao pounced on Hranac's error in the box and fired home from six-yards out to give his side three points in their opening game.
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