Group D England Portugal Scotland Spain 19th July 18:00 ESP – POR (Vijverberg, Doetichem) 19th July 20:45 ENG – SCO (Galgenwaard, Utrecht) 23rd July 18:00 SCO – POR (Sparta Stadium, Rotterdam) 23rd July 20:45 ENG – ESP (Rat Verlegh, Breda) 27th July 20:45 SCO – ESP (De Adelaarshorst, Deventer) 27th July 20:45 POR – ENG (King Willem II, Tilburg)
That would be indeed soccer shocker! Claudia Neto almost single handedly carried A Selecção das Quinas to Euro finals. (well not really ) Perhaps she will make one more miracle today. I think Spain will open bag with goals tonite though, showing everyone that they mean buissness - like playing in Euro final match buissness. They're my favs to challenge the German team in Europe.
I see you're a new member. Welcome here Zacarías! We do need injection of new blood on these boards, so I hope you will feel at home here in the women's football section of BigSoccer.
Hey, I see Spain have their "Marta" too. UEFA's line up of Portugal has Ana Borges as a FB, but I always saw her play in attack... Will she really play in defense?
I am watching the Eurosport broadcast on a streaming feed that has an aweful audio and sometimes freezes. Anyway, I give the link for anyone is in my situation (Eurosport or UEFA feed blocked in his/her country): http://www.sportingvideo.org/20170719/wv596f0953df6ee265212375-1735500.html Spain presses, has possession dominance since the first 5 minutes at least, and had some chances but they can't seem to frame their shots. I can see the reasoning behind playing Ana Borges as Left Back: not sure if she actually transitioned to defender in last seasons, but she's the only player Portugal has with enough speed to contain Alexia Putellas on that side. Oh, and while I write, Spain actually scores, at 23', with Losada, from a long feed from the midfield. Now it will become harder and harder for Portugal.
Portugal's GK has a worrying tendency to come off and randomly slap the ball without much conviction...
Neto is our Ronaldo lol. I'm afraid it's going to be another awful showing like the last Algarve Cup, and Spain will outclass us
2-0 at 41': Sampedro has an header in the box, free from any markings. It had to happen: I hadn't seen a so one-way game in this Euro 2017 yet. Portugal didn't make any appearance in Spain's half of the pitch after about 5', I guess, and Spain probably had a possession percentage around 70%.
Well, that's indeed a huge accomplishment. I remember being in Algarve in 2012 and seeing Ana Borges scoring a brace at Algarve Stadium (I guess it was vs Ireland) and I was saying to myself: "It's a shame that such a player won't probably see the pitch in any other big tournament apart from Alagrve Cup". 5 years after and Portugal is here and fighting! Good Job!
Wow, I had been optimistic: possession in 1st half was 79% vs 21% for Spain (seldom seen anything of the kind in big international tournaments). Shots were 9 vs 0, CKs 4 vs 0.
Gawd, I hate Spain and had hoped for a better showing for Portugal. Oh well. Perhaps, the Portguese ladies will improve going foward.
both our women and men's senior national teams have a problem with a good finisher. This game should have been a 4 or 5-0 type of game. Anyway, glad that we got the win
Well, after 1st half I wouldn't have believed that the 2-0 result would have stayed. Thumbs up to Portugal who played much better in 2nd half, although Spain's FWs, as Juanele pointed out, are to blame for missing good chances. I didn't expect that, but the duel between Ana Borges and Alexia Putellas on Portugal Right Side (I had mistakenly written "Left Side" earlier) was actually one of the most interesting ones of the afternoon.
At least the games have been competitive on the scoreboard, down to the final moment. This was the first game decided by more than one goal. Spain is in first place in all groups combined now in goal difference (but that doesn't matter in this tournament).
Well that was a practice game for Spain, the rythmn and intensity was more like a friendly than a competition one. Spain did OK controlling the game, dictaticng the tempo, but they never speeded up plays trying to catch Portugal off guard, the two goals are quite similar, long ball Portuguese defenders having no clue who to mark and Spanish players, easily beating the goalkeeper Morais who I liked since her days in Fance, but beautiful control and finishing by Vicky Losada btw. Nothing reallly changed in the second half because Portugal is clearly just happy to be there defending with all their players in their half even when they were down 2-0........Their intention was clear, don't get embarassed since the first match....Anyway, I'm quite astonish that Amanda DaCosta couldn't make the starting eleven as if Portugal had better player than her..... For Spain it is impossible to judge because they certainly were the only team with the intention of doing something, they did what necessary to win the match and take three points, they didn't had to force themselves scoring 2-3 more goals, to save energy for Sunday game against England and for the rest of the competition was the right to do.
I may be wrong, and please tell me if I am, but I see the Portuguese WNT at this Euros like the Irish MNT at Euro 2012. They're there for the experience and nothing more, content with staying in their half the entire match to keep the score reasonable and respectable