Euro 2020 top scorers Cristiano Ronaldo and Patrik Schick will meet in their first group match of Euro 2024 in Germany.
The joint top scorers from the last European Championship will clash when Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal take on Patrik Schick's Czech Republic in their opening Euro 2024 Group F match at the Red Bull Arena in Leipzig.
Ronaldo and Schick scored five goals in the COVID-delayed Euro 2020 and are likely to shoulder the scoring load for their teams this time around.
The tournament could be Ronaldo's international swan song, although the 39-year-old appears as hungry for goals and adulation as ever as he prepares to start his sixth European Championship on Tuesday.
While he may have moved away from Europe's elite to play in Saudi Arabia, the goalscoring instincts of men's international football's top scorer appear as sharp as ever.
After finishing second top scorer in qualifying with 10 goals and scoring 35 in 31 league games for Al Nassr last season, the seemingly ageless Ronaldo warmed up for the tournament with a brace in his final friendly against Ireland.
While Ronaldo lifted the trophy in 2016, he may still harbor a sense of unfinished business on the international stage.
Having missed most of that final eight years ago through injury, he has failed to propel Portugal to greater glory in two subsequent World Cups and at Euro 2020, when they were eliminated in the round of 16.
This has been one of Portugal's most golden generations, but with Ronaldo and defender Pepe, 41, in the twilight of their careers, Euro 2024 has the feel of a last hurrah.
With a squad full of talent, Portugal will be, on paper, one of the best teams in Germany. They won all 10 of their matches in the playoffs, scoring 36 and conceding twice.
However, their coach, Roberto Martínez, knows very well the dangers of leading a group of extremely talented players in international tournaments, after failing to turn Belgium's so-called “Golden Generation” into tournament winners.
Martínez, however, also knows that he arguably has the best in the game in Ronaldo.
“We have 23 players. We create competitiveness and the game makes decisions,” he said earlier this month. “But Cristiano is prepared to help the team and give everything he can. And there is no other player in the world of football who can contribute what Cristiano can contribute to the locker room.”
Schick, who won goal of the tournament at Euro 2020 for his goal against Scotland from the halfway line, will lead a Czech team with very different expectations.
The Czechs finished second in the standings behind Albania, winning four of their eight matches in a group that also included Poland, Moldova and the Faroe Islands.
With Schick absent from the later qualifying rounds, they found it difficult to get goals, but, fresh from winning the Bundesliga with Bayer Leverkusen, he appears to have shaken off the injuries that hampered him and could spell trouble for Portugal.
Portugal vs Czechia starts at 21:00 local time (19:00 GMT) on Tuesday, June 18.
