Ruben Semedo and Nuno Santos earn their first call up for Portugal's U21's for the upcoming qualifiers against Albania and Israel. Andre Silva is back as well. http://www.fpf.pt/Noticias/Noticia/...ler/56/Sub-21-convocados-para-a-dupla-jornada Guarda-Redes: André Moreira (União da Madeira), Bruno Varela (Real Valladolid) e Rui Silva (CD Nacional); Defesas: João Cancelo (Valencia CF), Rafa Soares (FC Porto), Nurio Fortuna (SC Braga), Rebocho (Benfica), Rúben Semedo (Vitória FC), Rúben Vezo (Valencia CF) e Tobias Figueiredo (Sporting); Médios: Bruno Fernandes (Udinese Calcio), Francisco Ramos (FC Porto), Rony Lopes (AS Monaco), Raphael Guzzo (CD Tondela), Rúben Neves (FC Porto) e Tomás Podstawski (FC Porto); Avançados: André Silva (FC Porto), Carlos Mané (Sporting), Gelson Martins (Sporting), Gonçalo Paciência (Académica), Iuri Medeiros (Moreirense FC), Nuno Santos (Benfica) e Ricardo Horta (Malaga CF). 2 players missing that should be here. Bruma and Diogo Jota. Jota has done more than enough this season and last season to get a chance. Recent reports have Chelsea and Barcelona scouting him.
Bruma is the new Quaresma. By the time he gets his act together he will be past his prime but still useful. Shame.
Diogo Jota receives his first call up to the U21's to replace Ruben Neves, who jumps to the Senior team. http://www.fpf.pt/Noticias/Noticia/Id/14698/Cat/746/highlight/1/caller/56/Sub-21-Diogo-Jota-chamado
And we played our reserve front three as well. Gelson, Iuri and Andre Silva will be well rested for Israel
Goals were scored by Ricardo Horta, Carlos Mane, Ruben Vezo and Goncalo Paciencia. For me, Joao Cancelo was the best player on the pitch.
Portugal u21s last loss was against Russia in 2011, I know Sweden won on penalties but that's not classified as a loss per say. Thats 24 games unbeaten, is that some sort of record
I wouldn't go as far as to say we choked. Sweden parked the bus to the extreme. Any team would have trouble winning against that. As the less physical team, we tired out and it cost us in the end with penalties which generally are a crap shoot to begin with. Redo the game and 9 out 0f 10 times Portugal would have won. It is unfortunate but it is life. The world took notice of us and they definitely acknowledged us as the best team in the tournament even if we didn't take home the title.
Sorry, I'm all for optimism but in what way is our youth who have had solid tournamenst the past 2 years and but haven't won anything, better then Spain who have a U21 Euro title (2013), and U19 Euro title (2015...a 2012 one as well) Really curious as to what the metrics are and hopefully they go beyond "I'm Portuguese therefore Portugal is better than Spain"
We choked. The opening 15 minutes Sweden were shitting their pants and we had all the openings that we had vs Germany but we didn't take any of them because we CHOKED. NFT They got too scared to win. Sweden grew in confidence once they realized Portugal were not serious about winning, and then we lost ours and let them dictate the game. They came closer to scoring in the second half and extra time then we did this park the bus excuse is a lie.
You can't change the past, you can only learn from it. Focus on today and looked forward for the next tournament. Keep your chin up.