Remembering Euro 2016: How Ronaldo's only major trophy nearly didn't happen

"No one believed in us," Cristiano Ronaldo said eight summers ago, trying to fight back tears, and ultimately losing the battle. "No one believed in Portugal."

History only shows that Portugal won the European Championship in 2016, and that it remains, at least for the next two weeks and possibly forever, the only major international trophy won by Ronaldo.

But as the 39-year-old superstar tries to do it again and prepares for his team's Euro 2024 Round of 16 clash with Slovenia on Monday (3 p.m. ET on FOX), it is worth remembering how that triumph came about, a remarkable campaign built on the back of a catalog of catastrophes, farcical moments, near failure and gloomy form.

And for most of which, as Ronaldo accurately pointed out in the moments following the side's 1-0 victory over France in the final, no one believed in them.

Why would they have?

It wasn't like this team, where Ronaldo is surrounded by a star-studded crew, to the point where despite averaging a goal per game for Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia, there are some who wonder if he should be coming off the bench. Even Wednesday's defeat to underdog Georgia wasn't particularly concerning, as it came with most starters rested after the team booked its spot in the bracket with a game to spare.

In 2016, in truth, the skeptics had every right to expect Portugal's campaign to end at any moment, so frequent were the issues that continued to arise.

Where to start? How about when Ronaldo disliked a reporter's line of questioning so much that he threw their microphone into a lake?

In the first game of the 2016 group stage, he didn't like how defensive Iceland was against Portugal and went on a silly rant, describing the opposition's mentality as "small" and predicting they