The former Swansea forward received praise from his
national coach after the his heroics in the Euro 2016
final, in which he struck the winner in extra time.
Portugal coach Fernando Santos hailed ugly duckling Eder for
becoming a beautiful swan after his unlikely match-winner
stunned hosts France in the final of Euro 2016.
Santos saw his team's prospects suffer a body blow when captain
and talisman Cristiano Ronaldo limped out of the action with a
first-half knee injury.
Portugal survived Andre-Pierre Gignac hitting the post in
stoppage time as the 90 minutes finished goalless.
They came on strongly during the additional period and, after
Raphael Guerreiro struck the crossbar with a free-kick,
replacement striker Eder arrowed an unstoppable 25-yard strike
into the bottom corner to spark wild celebrations.
The 28-year-old flopped badly at Swansea City last season before
reviving his career in France with Ligue 1 outfit Lille and Santos
revealed Eder was not short of confidence when he entered the
fray at the Stade de France.
"When I took Cristiano out I thought of putting Eder on
immediately but at that moment I thought we should change the
game, so I moved Nani to the middle for him to play his fast
game," the victorious tactician explained.
"But we needed someone to play up front and to let the team
come up. We needed someone to play up in the air to make it
harder for the French later on.
"When he came on he said 'gaffer, I am going to score' and the
ugly duckling scored - he is now a beautiful swan."
Portugal were often accused of being ugly as a collective during a
campaign they ended as champions despite winning only one of
seven matches inside 90 minutes.
Ronaldo, stricken following an early challenge from Dimitri Payet
- a tackle Santos felt should have been punished by a card from
referee Mark Clattenburg - remained on the touchline cajoling his
team-mates alongside the coaching staff.
Santos felt this was testament to the team spirit Portugal have
managed to foster.
"It's hard to describe the players' emotions. It's an incredible
emotion and we need to stress [the effort of] our skipper," he
said. "He had an immense effort. We had an amazing team
spirit. He had an amazing spirit - twice he tried as much as he
could to get back on the pitch but he couldn't.
"Him being there in the locker room and on the bench, it was very
important for us the way he reached the lands and incentivised
them. He believed, just like myself, that tonight was our night.
"On his behalf I would like to thank all the players for believing
because tonight was out night."
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