Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
Tonight sees as the first quarter final of Euro 2016 as Poland take on Portugal. Will Robert Lewandowski finally get off the mark in this tournament or will Cristiano Ronaldo move one step closer to finally winning a major international competition.
Poland needed extra time and penalties to get past Switzerland in the Round of 16 a game I was lucky enough to witness in person after being in France last Weekend – you can read more about my adventure away here: http://realfootballman.com/football/weekend-lyon-euro-2016-adventure/
Although they have booked a quarter final berth and have won 3 out of their 4 games so far, the other being held to a draw by World Champions Germany in Group C there must be some concern that their talisman Lewandowski has yet to find the net
It was a point I made when watching him against Switzerland which I don’t know how much credence it has due to the amount of drinking that took place but does playing with better players week in week out make him the better striker
With so much other attacking talent at Bayern the goals are all but laid on a plate for Lewandowski but a mixture of not the same level service and poor finishing when opportunities do arise has seen him draw 4 blanks in the competition
Talking of 4, that is the magic number for Cristiano Ronaldo has he has managed to score in that many successive European Championships. He didn’t get on the scoresheet on Saturday against Croatia but he did have a hand in Ricardo Quaresma’s winner
It must be said that the game as a whole was absolutely awful. I’m trying to be subjective as possible but maybe because of the fact that I was watching it through very tired eyes it failed to get the blood boiling. The fact that a shot on goal wasn’t even registered in the first 25 minutes by either side says it all.
Ronaldo has only found the net in one game, that was a brace against Hungary in that ridiculous 3-3 draw. He has underperformed by his own standards but somehow Portugal have dragged themselves to the Quarter Final stages and you would have to fancy them to go onto the Semi’s
I’ve made much of Lewandowski but he was amongst the goals then I would be more confident of them getting some sort of result but I can’t see it happening Tonight and it’s not just Ronaldo they will have to keep an eye on. Nani has had a decent tournament so far and has arguably been more of a threat then the Real Madrid superstar
So who will win this one, I’ll stick my neck on the line and begrudgingly go with Portugal. After stinking out Saturday night in that game against Croatia they almost deserved to be sent home for such a poor offering but unfortunately for me entertainment isn’t actually in Uefa’s rulebook therefore I think they will move on to face either Belgium or Wales next week.
