Portugal v Slovenia LIVE: Result as Diogo Costa saves Cristiano Ronaldo’s blushes in Euro 2024 penalty shootout

There was a minute left to run on Gareth Southgate’s reign, the clock ticking down on a dismal tournament that seemed a demoralising end to the second-finest tenure of any England manager.

Until an airborne Jude Bellingham intervened.

Until Bellingham underlined that he has that combination of talent, technique and temperament to offer the promise of greatness. There had been reasons for Southgate to replace him: booked for a rash lunge at Lukas Haraslin, he had been unwise enough to lay his hands on the referee. He had endured a poor game.

“You build on the spirit that they’ve shown, the belief that they’ll have gained from that,” Gareth Southgate said following England’s 2-1 victory over Slovakia.

“Equally, we’re not naive. We’re going to play a team [Switzerland] that have looked outstanding, not just in this tournament but for quite a while as well. That’s going to be a big tactical challenge for us.

“We know that the level of our game will need to be higher, but there was a spirit and there was a togetherness that has been building.

“We’ve had a lot of problems to solve through this whole lead into the camp, through the tournament. We’re putting a plaster over different things and giving young players opportunities. We’re somehow finding a way.

“I can imagine how everybody is going to react to that, even though we’ve won. But we’re still in there and the one thing that can’t be questioned is the desire, the commitment, the character.”

Gareth Southgate knows stumbling but spirited England have to raise their game if they are to stand a chance of beating “outstanding” Switzerland in Saturday’s Euro 2024 quarter-final.

A trip to Dusseldorf awaits after Jude Bellingham came to the rescue with a 95th-minute overhead equaliser against wily Slovakia on Sunday before Harry Kane sealed a 2-1 extra-time win.

England were seconds away from their tournament coming to an end in humiliating fashion, only to squeak through to a fourth successive major quarter-final under Southgate.

It was thirty years of hurt when Gareth Southgate stepped up and missed a penalty and it was about to become at least 60 until Jude Bellingham attempted an overhead kick. Southgate makes no secret of his ambitions to emulate Sir Alf Ramsey, to double the number of trophy-winning managers in England’s history.

He looks to the past to provide inspiration and lessons alike. If 1966 has become a profitable nostalgia industry, it is so long ago that many of the England players’ parents were not born. They could be forgiven for not knowing all the details.

At St George’s Park, before England ventured to Germany, Southgate turned back time. “We showed the players a presentation about 1966 and how Geoff Hurst hadn’t played until the quarter-final.”

Hurst ended up the hat-trick hero in the final and if that scarcely needs explaining, some of Southgate’s charges may not know that a man who achieved immortality had entered the 1966 World Cup with a lone international goal to his name.

Jude Bellingham faces a possible ban at Euro 2024 after Uefa opened an investigation into a gesture he made while celebrating the spectacular overhead kick scored against Slovakia in their last-16 tie on Sunday.

Bellingham equalised in the 96th minute to save England from a humiliating defeat, and they eventually prevailed in extra time to book a quarter-final with Switzerland.

In the aftermath of his goal, Bellingham was seen shouting “Who else?!” as he ran over to England fans after scoring. Video showed the Real Madrid forward then kiss his hand and grab his crotch in a gesture which appeared to be directed towards the side of the pitch.

Slovenia and Denmark became the second and third nations to draw all three of their group stage matches at a European Championship.

The first team to do so were Portugal on their way to winning Euro 2016.

Portugal have qualified from the group stage in all nine of their Euro campaigns.

"We are prepared for Portugal," said Gnezda Cerin, "They’re a very, very talented team and they can cause you problems all around the pitch."

Midfielder Adam Gnezda Cerin says Slovenia are not satisfied with reaching the last 16 at Euro 2024 and hopes the team progress further into the competition as they face Portugal tonight.

A goalless draw against England in their final group game sent Slovenia through as one of the four best third-placed teams in what is the first time they have reached the knockout phase of a major competition.

"It is a new milestone for the Slovenian national team, for Slovenia in general," said Gnezda Cerin when previewing the game versus Portugal.

"We have our goals and I think the match will be a beautiful evening for everyone to enjoy because these matches are something you dream about as a kid who starts playing football.

"We are not done. We will try to play to the match at the highest possible level."

If it had been thought that the cult of Cristiano Ronaldo was diminishing, you only had to listen to the man who is notionally supposed to be his superior.

Portugal manager Roberto Martinez was asked about Bruno Fernandes’ goal in the 56th minute against Turkey, which to most people looking on would have just been a striker squaring to his teammate for an easy finish; think Brian McClair to Paul Ince in the 1994 FA Cup final.

The only notable thing about it was that someone as intensely obsessed with his own scoring record as Cristiano Ronaldo had actually passed the ball, but that kind of surprise wasn’t really the emotion that Martinez was conveying. He was going for more.