Who is Francisco Conceicao? Meet Portugal’s latest Euro 2024 match winner whose father Sergio scored legendary hat-trick against Germany
Francisco Conceicao is a 21-year-old winger who made his senior debut for Portugal on March 26, 2024, in an international friendly against Slovenia ahead of Euro 2024. The Porto forward netted the winning goal for the Selecao in their opening match of this year's tournament against Czechia.
The match ended in a 2-1 win for Roberto Martínez's squad on June 18 at Red Bull Arena in Leipzig.
After a goalless first half of the Euro 2024 clash, Czechia opened their scoring with midfielder Lukáš Provod's goal from an assist by defender Vladimír Coufal in the 62nd minute. However, Czechia could not maintain their lead for long due to a mistake on their part as defender Robin Hranac netted an own goal in the 69th minute.
The Selecao found their lead just minutes before the final whistle after Conceicao came off the bench in the 90th minute and netted the winning goal just two minutes later.
More than two decades ago, Francisco Conceicao's father, Sérgio, who was most recently the manager of Porto since 2017, scored a hat-trick to eliminate defending champions Germany from Euro 2000.
The 21-year-old forward started his senior club career with the reserve team of Porto in 2020 and then transferred to Ajax in 2022 but was on loan to his former club for the 2023–24 season. On 23 April, Porto re-signed Francisco Conceicao on a five-year contract.
Portugal national head coach speaks about Francisco Conceicao after their Euro 2024 opener
Following Portugal's 2-1 win against Czechia in their first match of Euro 2024, head coach Roberto Martínez spoke about Francisco Conceicao's gameplay and told reporters (via FotMob):
"He deserves it. He always works with one eye in front of the goal, he sniffs out goals. He was the fireworks we needed today."
Speaking about his squad's performance in the game, the Selecao manager said:
"There are some points to evaluate, not from a tactical or physical point of view – we had 18 shots and 13 corners. We won because we showed values of resilience, will and belief, from a dressing room that wants to give everything for Portugal. For a coach, it's the best."
Conceicao scored eight goals and provided eight assists in 43 appearances for Porto last season.