Euro 2020: Ronaldo and Portugal outplayed by Germany as Group F remains open
The interesting thing about the European Championships is that it’s more of a marathon than a race. Some teams may begin on a strong note and fizzle out while others make slow starts and get stronger as the tournament progresses.
Portugal do not yet know which of the above groups they belong to. The Selecao made a great start to Euro 2020 when they defeated Hungary 3-0. However, their bright start has been curtailed by a disastrous outing against Germany on Saturday. Fernando Santos’ side were off the pace despite taking an early lead.
While Germany played as a collective unit, Portugal were largely disjointed, culminating in a heavy 4-2 defeat.
Portugal capitulate against Germany
Cristiano Ronaldo’s opening goal in the 15th minute was supposed to provide the Selecao with a solid footing to build on, but it was not to be. Rather, Portugal continued to drop deeper into their own half, allowing their opponents to gain momentum. Once Germany finally settled, there was no turning around.
The game had all the shades of Die Mannschaft’s 7-1 win over Brazil at the 2014 World. At a point, it looked like Portugal were going to suffer the same fate after their capitulation. Germany’s continuous pressure led to two quick-fire own goals from Ruben Diaz and Raphael Guerrero to overturn the result before half time.
Kai Havertz and Robin Gosens inflicted more damage in the second half by adding two goals to take the scoreline to 4-1. It was only after Germany took their foot off the gas that Diogo Jota grabbed a second consolation goal for Portugal.
Santos’ tactics backfire
Portugal may have beaten Hungary 3-0 in their first Euro 2020 game but their performance wasn’t the best. The Selecao struggled for large parts of the game until the final seven minutes when they sparked into life.
Against Germany, Santos attempted to deploy a similarly cautious approach. He set up his side to cede possession and play on the counter-attack.
It worked for a brief period but once Germany upped the ante, Portugal had no response. They were completely outfought by a tactically superior team.
“Would I have preferred to have won? Of course. But we must be proud of how we battled until the end,” Santos said in his post-match press conference, as quoted by the Daily Mail.
“What matters now is that we do the same (fight until the end) for this Wednesday. The Portuguese people are with the team. In these difficult times, we must unite and give strength to each other. We were winning for 1-0 and ended up losing 2-4, it's not the result we wanted," added Santos.
Portugal still have their destiny in their hands but a final group game against tough opponents in France puts them in a very precarious situation. The irony of it all is that they could still exit the tournament despite their huge opening day win.