Youssef Al-Tuwaytiya, Media365, published on Tuesday, June 18, 2024 at 11:11 pm
Facing a declining Czech side, Portugal ended up having the final say on Tuesday during their first appearance at Euro 2024, winning at the end of the match by a narrow margin (2-1).
Portugal dominated for a long period, and even took the lead against the run of play, ousting the Czech Republic (2-1) on Tuesday in Leipzig, entering the Euro Championship in Germany. In a very inaccurate offensive manner, the European champion used his mind to achieve victory in the last quarter of the match and join Turkey, which beat Georgia (3-1), at the top of the Group F standings, and the two teams will meet on Saturday. 6 p.m.) to try and validate their ticket to the Final Eight.
Futile control of Portugal
One last game on the first day which started as planned: the Portuguese had possession, and the Czechs were positioned very low on the pitch. The pattern continued…the entire first period. In fact, Roberto Martinez's men spent almost 45 minutes in the opposing camp. To do what? Not much. With the exception of Rafael Leao's incursion, the Lusitanians did not make the slightest difference in the first half hour.
Discreet thus far, Cristiano Ronaldo has struggled to stand out and place himself among his partners. It was still him who had the best chance of the first half with a close-range shot saved by Jindrich Stanek (32). A move in which Al-Nasr's scorer may have been offside. We found him just before the end of the first half with a pivotal shot that was blocked by the Slavia Prague goalkeeper again in front of his cage (45 + 1).
The Portuguese have a mentality
The five-time Ballon d'Or winner stood out again after returning from the dressing room with a well-kicked but not powerful enough free-kick (58th). An hour later, the Czech Republic finally decided to attack by emerging from its den. In his first tangible attack after two crosses were blocked by the opponent's defenders, Ivan Hasek's men opened the scoring with a perfect shot from Lukas Provod (0-1, minute 62). A goal against the run of play punished the Portuguese who were too inaccurate and not coherent enough in attack, but above all were too tense as the match progressed.
The Lusitanian team lacked ideas, had a mentality and came together a few minutes later with Ruben Hranac's own goal (1-1, min. 69). The 2016 European champion passed refreshed close to the second goal, but Bernardo Silva (72) and Vitinha (78) tripped the Czech goalkeeper, while Diogo Jota's goal was rejected due to offside from Cristiano Ronaldo (87). Finally, it was Francisco Conceição, who had entered a few seconds earlier, who was responsible for freeing Seleção das Cuenas with a close-range shot (2-1, min. 90 + 2). A difficult victory, but a well-deserved victory for one of the championship candidates.
