Portugal coach Paulo Bento praised his team's collective effort in its 2-1 win over the Netherlands that sent it into the quarterfinals at Euro 2012, while the Portuguese press hailed the genius of Cristiano Ronaldo, who  responded to his critics after two sub-par performances at Euro 2012 with the two goals that gave Portugal the win.

"We have an identity, we have certain ideas and then the players put that into practice," Bento said. "They did what we asked them to do. Today we can even talk about some brilliance. It was the best game we have played so far, apart from the first 12 minutes. We have been loyal to our spirit and that is what we are proud of."

"Great Portugal, brilliant Ronaldo," the leading sports daily A Bola said. "With Cristiano Ronaldo playing like that, no one will stop Portugal." A Bola went on to describe the Real Madrid star's performance as "sumptuous wizardry," while A Bola rival Record categorized the Portuguese as "a supernova and a team of giants."

"Orange squashed by Ronaldo genius," said the Correio da Manha, while Publico columnist Bruno Prata, who a few days ago had said Ronaldo needed to see a psychologist to overcome his goal-shy tendencies, called the striker "a whirlwind."