A deceptive first place? Portugal, who arrived in Germany with the best record in the qualifying phase (100% wins in a weak group), finished top of their group, but without really knowing where to place them among the tournament’s big names.
The Portuguese certainly impressed during their defeat against Turkey (3-0), but before that they had to wait until the last minute to win (2-1) against the Czech Republic, before collapsing (2- 0) against Georgia in the third match, with a reshuffled team.
The tactic in question
In search of the best system to highlight a squad full of talent, coach Roberto Martinez always seems to hesitate between a hybrid 3-5-2 and a more classic 4-3-3 but which exposes his full-backs Nuno Mendes (Paris Saint -Germain) and Joao Cancelo (FC Barcelona) defensively.
The defeat against Georgia, the first under the Spanish coach, only served to increase doubts, even though most of his starters were rested.
The tireless Pepe, still the boss of the Portuguese defense at 41, believes that his team must improve and “learn lessons” from this first defeat before facing Slovenia on Monday, winner of the last friendly duel between the two countries in March (2-0).
Fuzzy instructions
Some Portuguese media assure that the players do not understand Martinez’s plans and therefore have difficulty implementing them.
“One wonders if Roberto Martinez has understood what went wrong against Georgia, and the Czech Republic, for that matter,” the newspaper wrote. A Bola. “It’s hard to see in (many players’) faces a team that knows what it’s doing and, perhaps more importantly, believes in it. »
There are also concerns that Martinez is placing too much trust in his superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, 39, who has failed to score in any of his three group matches in a major international competition for the first time in his career.
Facing Slovenia, a formidable opponent who held England and Denmark to a draw to qualify for the last 16, it is difficult to say what face the team will have. Seleçao. But the 2016 European champion, always looking for his best version in competition, theoretically has enough talent (Cancelo, Bernardo Silva, Rafael Leao, Vitinha, etc.) to reach the quarters.
He will nevertheless have to be wary of the two Slovenian strong men: Atlético Madrid goalkeeper Jan Oblak, capable of transforming into a real wall, and Leipzig striker Benjamin Sesko, unhappy since the start of the Euro but extremely dangerous deflecting and capable of scoring from distance with a huge strike of the ball, who has already shaken the German nets 14 times this season.
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