Portugal 1-1 Serbia
Plenty of footballing fans expected a Portugal team that is led by one Cristiano Ronaldo to make a deep run the competition. When squads have a player of Ronaldo’s calibre, it’s hard not to put some lofty expectations ahead for the team.
The Euro 2020 qualifiers were supposed to be a stepping stone for the defending champions as they try to defend their crown against a tough crop of players. Plenty of pre-match Portugal vs Serbia predictions tipped Portugal to get past their opponents on the grounds of CR7’s existence alone.
However, Portugal’s most important son suffered a knock before the end of the first half. His injury clearly affected his team-mates as they weren’t able to bounce back from the injury. The game ended in a frustrating draw, and I don’t think the fans who flocked the Estadio da Luz were happy with how things turned out.
Highlights of the game
Both teams fielded attack-oriented lineups at the start of the match. With Serbia’s 4-2-3-1 and Portugal’s 4-3-3 with the Juventus ace on the right wing, there was an anticipation for goals to be scored throughout the 90 minutes.
What the crowd didn’t expect, however, was that the first side to score weren’t wearing red. Rui Patricio bodied Mijat Gacinovic who was clear to score on goal. The referee didn’t waste any time pointing to the spot, and Dusan Tadic gladly scored his 30th goal for club and country with a magnificent strike down the left-hand corner of the goal.
It’s obvious that the Seleccao would want to even up the playing field after the poor goal they conceded. Ronaldo almost got his team back on equal footing with a beautiful shot from just outside the 18-yard box. However, Marko Dmitrovic was quick to deny the star man the goal he so badly needed.
The match continued on, and Portugal were trying to do everything they can to catch up to the Orlovi. Ronaldo had another crack at goal in the 23rd minute, but his shot was blocked by a defender.
That became his last major action in the game as he suddenly signalled for medical assistance 29 minutes into the match. The team physios rushed to his side and immediately deemed him as ineligible to continue any further. Fernando Santos was forced to make a substitution, and Pizzi was called to action.
Ronaldo’s injury was worrisome to two sets of fans. The team struggled to get things going against Ukraine despite plenty of SBOBET Euro 2020 markets backing them to win with relative ease. They would have benefitted from a full 90-minute performance from Cristiano.
Moreover, his immediate club future is also affected by this. No one still knows the injury’s severity, and his prospects of playing Ajax in the Champions League is a looming question mark until test results come out.
Fortunately for the rabid Portuguese supporters, the equaliser came just before the half-time break. Danilo Pereira got the ball right in the middle of the pitch and started a run towards the goal. However, there was no one to pass to and the runway was open. He then kept on running until he was in shooting range, and a bullet of a ball clipped the crossbar and flew straight to the goal.
The entire Estadio da Luz roared to life as Pereira pranced straight to the supporters to celebrate with them. The entire XI also rushed to his side in celebration.
The half ended with Portugal on a high, but the second half saw little to no action as the game ended with the same score 45 minutes later. Andre Silva and Raphael Guerreiro tried to grab the winner in the reset, but neither ended in goals.
They definitely missed Ronaldo’s presence in the game’s latter stages as the Euro 2020 results now place them outside of the qualification slots.
Key statistics
It is fair for Ronaldo’s fans to say that his unfortunate injury prevented him from playing his best. However, he missed a perfect chance to get Portugal in front. The last time he scored for the Seleccao was against Morocco in the 2018 World Cup and has now failed to score in his last four international appearances. His prolific shooting has apparently stayed in Italy.
CR7 isn’t the only man that deserves flak, though. The rest of the players on the pitched failed to capitalise on their time with the football. They a total of 28 attempts, but only five of those were on target.
Props must also be given to the Serbians for sticking to their style of unapologetic football. They also managed to get the same result against Germany, and they will be more than happy to still have a fighting chance.
Interestingly, both sides are also undefeated in their last five games.
What’s next?
The battle for Euro qualification rages on. These two not meet again until October, but both have games to play before then.
Portugal will try to gain glory in the Nations League and will play Switzerland in the semi-final. Meanwhile, Serbia have a busy June with games against Ukraine and Lithuania.
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