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Lee Carsley’s England are into this year’s U21 European Championships semi-finals after riding their luck at times and ultimately grinding out a hard-fought 1-0 win over Portugal, courtesy of Anthony Gordon’s well-taken strike ten minutes before half-time. They’ll next play Israel – who they beat in Group C last week – on Wednesday for a place in next weekend’s showpiece event. Continue reading “U21 Euros: Gordon sees England escape with 1-0 win vs. Portugal, semis bound”
After Morocco stunned them in the World Cup quarter-finals, the Portuguese federation (FPF) yesterday announced their decision to part ways with head coach Fernando Santos, whose deal ran until 2024. The 68-year-old, who guided them to their first-ever senior international title back at Euro 2016, also led A Seleção to the UEFA Nations League title three years later. Continue reading “World Cup 2022: Portugal’s Fernando Santos is ninth manager to part ways post-tournament”
The pre-match noise surrounded Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo’s benching by Fernando Santos. Within 20 minutes, the man who replaced him – Benfica’s Goncalo Ramos – scored a thunderous opener and later completed the tournament’s first hat-trick as they thrashed Switzerland without their historical talisman. Up next? Spain’s slayers Morocco on Saturday.
Continue reading “Portugal 6-1 Switzerland: Ramos’ hat-trick justifies Santos’ selection in statement thrashing”
Goals from Joao Cancelo, Diogo Jota, Joao Felix and Andre Silva in stoppage-time sealed an impressive 4-1 victory for Nations League winners Portugal – but they could have easily put Zlatko Dalic’s Croatia to the sword by half-time. Which individual players impressed while others struggled in Porto? Continue reading “Nations League – Portugal 4-1 Croatia: Player Ratings as Santos’ side cruise to victory”
Here’s a look at five hits and flops after Portugal’s slender 1-0 win against the Netherlands saw them lift the inaugural Nations League trophy in Porto overnight..
Continue reading “Portugal 1-0 Netherlands: 5 Hits and Flops”
Here’s a look at five talking points, as the Netherlands earned a 3-1 (AET) win over England to book their place in Sunday’s Nations League Final against Portugal…
Continue reading “Netherlands 3-1 England: 5 Talking Points & Tactical Analysis”
Here’s a look at five talking points, as Cristiano Ronaldo’s 53rd career hat-trick powered Portugal into Sunday’s Nations League Final after a frantic finish against Switzerland in Porto last night. Continue reading “Portugal 3-1 Switzerland: 5 Talking Points & Tactical Analysis”
It took only four minutes for Cristiano Ronaldo to open his goalscoring account at this year’s World Cup – from the penalty spot – during an enthralling affair as two European heavyweights went head-to-head in their maiden Group B clash.
Continue reading “Portugal 3-3 Spain: Ronaldo hat-trick, Costa brace in World Cup classic”
After suffering a heartbreaking extra-time final defeat by Portugal at Euro 2016, the onus is on France’s golden generation to step up and justify why they’re all so highly-rated.
Continue reading “FIFA World Cup 2018: 5 keys to success for France”
Continue reading “Scout report: Andre Silva – Porto’s highly-coveted forward”
Portugal have won this year’s European Championships with a dramatic 1-0 victory over the host nation, France – courtesy of an extra-time strike from Éder. Despite France’s dominance in the early going, they were unable to find the goal to break the deadlock and Portugal’s grew as the game continued.
Looking at Group F before this summer’s European Championships began, most honest observers would never have expected to see the topsy-turvy state of the current standings after two rounds of fixtures.
Hungary – expected to finish bottom, are leading at the summit and have a two-point advantage on both Iceland and Portugal.
Austria, packed with Bayern Munich‘s David Alaba and Stoke forward Marko Arnautovic, are bottom of the group and they’ll be hoping they can manage to beat Gylfi Sigurdsson and co (Iceland) in their final fixture this coming week, if they’re to have any chance of progressing into the knockout rounds.
Portugal, well. Cristiano Ronaldo has created more chances and taken more shots than more than a quarter of the teams at the tournament by himself – but only has frustration etched on his face, and a missed penalty to boot, as critics and supporters alike continue to suggest this could be the beginning of his inevitable decline.
Continue reading “Opinion: Hungary vs Portugal on Wednesday is more than meets the eye”
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