By Simon Wright – Follow me on Twitter @Siwri88
Portugal held their nerve in a tense opening quarter-final
with Poland on Thursday night, knocking the Poles out 5-3 on penalties.
The teams played out a tight contest which ended 1-1 after
120 minutes. Poland skipper Robert Lewandowski opened the scoring inside of three
minutes but his new club teammate for next season, Renato Sanches cancelled his
goal out before the interval.
As the game went on, penalties always looked like the
outcome and it was the former Poland captain Jakub Blaszczykowski who ultimately
was the fall guy from 12-yards.
Rui Patricio kept out his spot-kick and Ricardo Quaresma
knocked his in to send Portugal into the final four despite not winning a match
in 90 minutes so far at EURO 2016. They will play Wales on Wednesday night in
Lyon.
Ronaldo
outshone by others
Many believe that for Portugal to have any kind of success
in this competition, they would be relying on the form and fortunes of
Cristiano Ronaldo.
These claims though are being proven wrong so far. Ronaldo
has had a mediocre tournament by his standards and his teammates have often had
to pick him up when it is normally the other way round.
Granted, he did put in a starring performance in the 3-3
draw with Hungary that ensured Portugal scraped through into the last 16 but
his telling contributions have been limited at EURO 2016 so far.
In the cauldron of the Stade Velodrome, it turned into
another off-night for the skipper. He should have had a penalty in the first
half when he was blatantly shoved in the penalty area by Michal Pazdan.
After that, he snatched at his chances far too much. Maybe
it is the pressure of needing to deliver? Maybe it is because he isn’t quite
playing with the calibre of players he normally does in La Liga with Real
Madrid? Either way, his touch in Marseille was not its usual self.
Ronaldo did take responsibility though in the shootout. Four
years ago, he was placed as no.5 taker in Donetsk for the semi-final with
Spain. That turned into a bad misjudgement as the Spanish moved into the final
before he had the chance to take his penalty. There were no such mistakes this
time around.
He might have hit the post against Austria in the group
stages and failed from the spot in the shootout during the 2008 UEFA Champions
League final but he never looked like missing here. It was Ronaldo’s penalty that
started an almost impeccable shootout.
Portugal are very consistent at the European Championships.
This is their fourth semi-final in their last six tournaments and on the two
occasions they missed out on the final four (1996 & 2008), they still made
the quarter-finals.
They will surely have to win a game in regular time though
in the next two matches if they really think they can win this fantastic trophy
for the first time in their history.
Blaszczykowski’s
pain
The only man to fail from 12-yards in the shootout was Blaszczykowski.
He has had a tremendous competition, scoring twice and reminding everyone of how
good he really is.
He has had a nightmare couple of seasons with terrible
injuries that have restricted his game time. Fiorentina decided not to take the
option on his recent loan deal with the Italians and he heads back to Borussia
Dortmund with a very uncertain club future.
Dortmund have plenty of creative options now in attack and
whilst they hold Blaszczykowski in high regard, his playing appearances at
Signal Iduna Park are surely going to be limited. A move away looks to be his
only option.
 |
| Agony for Jakub Blaszcykowski whose penalty was saved in the shootout |
He didn’t deserve the bad luck that befell him in the penalty
shootout (pictured). It wasn’t as if his penalty was a terrible kick. Patricio simply
guessed right and made a decent save. Sometimes, football can be a painful game
and Blaszczykowski should not be discredited for his efforts at EURO 2016. He
has been the lynchpin in Poland’s run to the quarter-finals.
Poland can look back on a very decent campaign even if they
didn’t always produce the excitement the neutral was looking for. For Portugal,
they might be slightly fortunate to still be here but they are in the semi-finals
and shouldn’t be discredited for continuing to fight and battle, even against
the odds.
My best
three players of the match
Man of the Match: Renato Sanches (Portugal)
Portugal have got a great talent on their hands. He deserved
to start after his impact in the Round-of-16 clash with Croatia. His goal was
brilliant even if it took a deflection to fully defeat Lukasz Fabianski. He is
quick with the ball and also strong in the air. Sanches looks like a real
superstar for the future.
2nd: Robert Lewandowski (Poland)
Going into this game, the Polish captain had been frustrated
by his opponents but form is temporary and class is permanent. He finally broke
his goalscoring duck inside the opening 140 seconds of the match and gave
Portugal problems all night. He scored his penalty in the shootout too.
3rd: Nani (Portugal)
He doesn’t always cover himself in glory but Nani has played
well in the majority of Portugal’s matches so far. He teed up the equalising
goal for Renato Sanches and often chose the right passes and moves throughout.
Faultless in the shootout too and it will be interesting to see how he does in
La Liga next season as he is moving to Valencia from Fenerbahce.
Comments
Post a Comment