Jack Grealish was one of many people left impressed by one Manchester City player at Euro 2024 on Monday.
Portugal were in action against Slovenia in their Round of 16 match, and needed penalties to set up a quarter-final match with France.
Benjamin Sesko squandered a couple of great chances for Slovenia, while Cristiano Ronaldo saw a penalty in extra-time saved by Jan Oblak.
Roberto Martinez’s side came out on top in the shootout, with Diogo Costa saving three penalties from Slovenia players. Bernardo Silva scored the winning spot-kick for Portugal.
It wasn’t a great performance from Portugal, who will certainly need to improve against France in the quarter-final.
But one man who did do quite well was Joao Cancelo.
Jack Grealish sends message to Joao Cancelo after Portugal knock out Slovenia
On another night, Slovenia might have caused a huge upset and knocked Portugal out of Euro 2024.
The side ranked 57th in the world defended resolutely and tried to hit Portugal on the break. There were a couple of moments when they looked like they were in, with Sesko twice being denied by Costa after breaking clear of veteran defender Pepe.
Portugal struggled to breach the Slovenian defence.
But Cancelo put in a great performance on the whole, operating as a right-back.
He was a little quiet in the first-half, but was arguably Portugal’s biggest threat in the second, and put in five crosses.
He had some typical shaky moments defensively, but this is to be expected these days with Cancelo, who is far more effective in the middle and final thirds than the first.
Cancelo posted on Instagram earlier today, writing the caption ‘For the country, fighting’.
There were lots of comments as usual, and one man who appeared to catch the game was Jack Grealish, who replied with the ‘top!’ emoji and clapping emoji.
Cancelo has looked good for Portugal
Cancelo has been decent so far at the Euros. He has certainly not underwhelmed like a lot of his teammates.
The 30-year-old is due to report back to pre-season at City this month, and it’s possible he could be going on the club’s tour of the US.
Barcelona would like to re-sign the player but cannot afford to buy him permanently. So it is a far from ideal situation for City, with Cancelo not in the plans of Pep Guardiola.
It would, ordinarily, be a good thing that Cancelo is visible at Euro 2024 and playing well.
But the interest doesn’t really seem to be there with him apart from Barcelona.
We will see if City and Barca are able to reach an agreement, but it’d be no surprise if this one dragged on for most of the summer.