Champions' Homecoming

Could victory at Euro 2016 signal the start of something special for Portugal?

- Tom Kundert

For the second time in less than 24 hours, Ederzito Antonio Macedo Lopes – better known simply as Eder – did not pass up an invitation to be the main protagonist at an historic event.

The previous evening he had made the best possible use of a Joao Moutinho pass in extra-time against France to score the winning goal in the Euro 2016 Final at Stade de France.

Now, next to the fountain atop the vast sweeping lawn of the Alameda Dom Afonso Henriques, not a blade of grass of which was visible for the expanse of heaving humanity on it, the hero of the hour again elicited riotous cheers when he bellowed into the microphone: “Today is a f****** national holiday!”

Amid extraordinary scenes in Lisbon on July 11, Portugal – a football-crazed country who are so often the nearly men – had reached its zenith in the sport, and the population was savouring every second of it.

Neither sweltering temperatures nor hangovers from the previous night’s ecstatic celebrations could dissuade the residents of Lisbon from pouring onto the streets. Two open-top buses carrying the European Championship-winning heroes slowly snaked along the avenues of the Portuguese capital that were jammed with flag-waving, gleeful and grateful revellers, all the way from the airport to the heart of the city.

Having reached six semi-finals and one Final in World Cups and European Championships prior to this summer’s tournament, but always coming up short when it most mattered, it was common to hear Portuguese fans express their belief that they would never get to see the Selecao lift silverware. It was a sentiment even more deeply entrenched after the heartbreak of losing the Euro 2004 Final on home soil to Greece.