Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
Portugal’s star studded squad which included the likes of Renato Sanches, Bruma, Gelson Martins and Diego Jogo have been dumped out of the UEFA European Under 21 Championships by virtue of not being able to finish as the best group runner up.
Going into last nights fixture with Macedonia they had to win and score 4 goals to better Slovakia’s goal difference of +3 with both sides managing to pick up 6 points. Well last night Portugal certainly did their bit in attack as they put four past tournament debutants Macedonia, but unfortunately for them they conceded two, which frustratingly was one goal too many.
Had they won 4-1 then it would be they and not Slovakia that would have progressed but as it stands it is disappointment as this crop of youngsters cannot emulate what the senior side managed last summer which was winning the European Championship.
Portugal did get off to the perfect start as Edgar Le opened the scoring after just two minutes and their advantage would be doubled on 22 minutes when Bruma scored his second of the tournament to make it 2-0, at this point they were half way to their target just halfway through the first half (a lot of use of the world half there, I make no apologies)
But there would be a spanner in the works just before the break when Enis Bardhi pulled one back for Macedonia and halved the deficit just before the break, in the grand scheme of things it did not change too much for Portugal as still two more goals would see them surpass Slovakia as the best runners up.
And with Daniel Podence scoring 12 minutes after the restart you would have reason to believe that the goals would keep coming, at 3-1 Portugal needed to chase that last remaining goal and that unfortunately would prove to be their undoing.
With 10 minutes to go Macedonia blew Portugal’s hopes out of the water as Kire Markoski made it 3-2 on the night meaning Portugal now needed to win 5-2 to qualify, this goal was an absolute hammer blow for the young Portuguese side.
Although Bruma who would go on to be man of the match would score a goal in injury time to create something of a grandstand finish, the Portuguese would shoot themselves in the foot when substitute Diogo Jogo was sent off for a straight red card in injury time.
With that Portugal’s hopes of qualification were over and Slovakia now wait and see what happens in Group C tonight – at present Czech Republic would also have to beat Denmark by four clear goals but that is on the assumption that Germany do not lose to Italy. Should Germany lose to Italy and Czech Republic lose to Denmark then it is anyone’s guess.
Germany are in a solid position with their plus 5 goal difference so there could be a scenario where the Czech Republic win 6-0 and Germany lose 1-0 and they themselves could still be the best second place team as long as Portugal do not get their required goal haul.
So a nervy wait for Slovakia who should they qualify will meet Spain in the Semi Finals. The Riojita have a perfect group stage record thanks to Denis Suarez’s first half strike against Serbia last night, with the draw panning out the way it is it means that we could be set for a grandstand England vs Spain final on June 30.
