Portugal held by battling Austria

Ronaldo missed a penalty as Portugal spurned the chance to move level on points with Hungary at the top of Group F after drawing 0-0 with Austria at the Parc des Princes.

Despite dominating the game for long spells, they couldn't find a way past a dogged Austria defence, with goalkeeper Robert Almer making several important saves.

The key moment came eleven minutes from the end when Ronaldo saw his penalty rebound off the base of the upright and away to safety as Austria held on for a draw which leaves the group wide open heading into the final round of matches next week.

Austria should have been ahead inside the opening three minutes, but Martin Harnik couldn't quite climb high enough to get a telling connection on Marcel Sabitzer's cross and the ball drifted wide of the post.

But Portugal hit back and Almer was forced to make a superb double save to deny Nani from close range and then on the follow-up.

Ronaldo shot narrowly wide from a good position just after the 20 minute mark after Nani and Rafael Guerreiro had combined well on the left.

Portugal were now very much in the ascendancy and Nani almost put them ahead on 28 minutes when he headed Ricardo Carvalho's cross against the upright with Almer well beaten.

However, Austria were almost ahead four minutes before the break, but Vieirinha was on hand to acrobatically head David Alaba's curling free-kick off the line.

It was goalless at the break, but Portugal goalkeeper Rui Patricio was called into action within 38 seconds of the restart to turn away midfielder Stefan Ilsanker's low shot from the edge of the penalty area.

Almer then produced a fine flying save to deny Ronaldo and was called into action again to turn away the Real Madrid striker's goal-bound header from the resulting corner.

Portugal continued to press and looked to have earned their reward eleven minutes from time when Ronaldo was dragged down by Martin Hinteregger and referee Nicola Rizzoli pointed to the spot.

Up stepped the Portuguese skipper to send Almer the wrong way only to see his low shot strike the base of the upright and bounce away to safety.

The former Manchester United player thought he had made amends shortly afterwards when he glanced home Joao Moutinho's floated free kick, but his effort was correctly ruled out for offside as Austria held on to keep themselves in with a chance of making the knock-out stages of the tournament despite only having one point from two games.

By: Kieran O'Daly