There's that clear penalty against Nani that a lot of people are forgetting about... Santos finally made the right changes and I was afraid that it was too late. Fortunately that wasn't the case. Hopefully this match gave those players an opportunity to gel. I think we're going to play better against Poland, have more ball possession but effectiveness in the final third will most likely remain the same. Our defense looks a lot better with these new guys on the field though. This is a huge improvement to build on.
Croatia changed their approach. They played for the sake of safety instead for the sake of the victory. Yes, Croatia had shots, but nothing ended in that crucial construction on the field. Fernando Santos is a huge expert, he waited and waited, I knew that he waits Croatian bad energy after 50,60 minutes. Croatian media says that Croatian coach needed to change players. Mario Mandzukic was completely out of this EURO. Nikola Kalinic needed to start instead of him, but the coach played safe again. If he had lost with Kalinic, people would say, that he placed Mandzukic on the bench and that's why they couldn't win. Again, Ivan Strinic showed how weak he is. Cristiano Ronaldo took the ball from him and ran for 70,80 meters and Quaresma scored. As usual, Croatia created one strong euphoria, underestimated some teams and they thought that they will be in finals, easier bracket with potential opponents like Slovakia, Austria, Iceland, etc. Portugal demonstrated fantastic tactical and very mature approach. Maybe this is not creative football, but this brings results. This knock out stage started very bad, weak matches, no shots. In Croatian team, it seems that only Ivan Perisic knows how to shot the ball properly. Portugal will pass against Poland. The match between Wales and N. Ireland was pretty sleepy. Maybe Switzerland played better than Poland. Fernando Santos really knows how to play against Croatian team and clubs. He took 4 points with Greece against Croatia, victory in Greece, draw in Croatia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Euro_2012_qualifying_Group_F http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuro/season...171/match=2002247/postmatch/report/index.html http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuro/season...171/match=2002252/postmatch/report/index.html Fernando Santos won against Dinamo Zagreb 3-0 http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsle...1211/match=55737/postmatch/lineups/index.html At the end, bad result for Croatia at this EURO, as usual. Nobody remembers 2,3 good matches if they don't carry you somewhere. You need some luck also, Portugal is in quarter finals with 4 draws. Also Portugal should get one penalty during the match against Croatia, Ivan Strinic made a punch with his leg, Nani suffered that punch. The referee lost his compass in some moments, several fouls were made and nothing happened. I knew that Portugal could win, since Croatia has never or scored against Portugal, now Croatia has 0-0-4 score and goal difference is 0-7. One defeat was at EURO 1996, both teams had 6 points in the group stage, so Croatian coach placed some players on the bench, but this defeat was too high anyway, 3-0. I liked the Portugal style during their 3 matches, at least they have dynamic style, with a lot of technical knowledge. Tonight they have showed that they are also well balanced in tactical and defensive sense. EURO Bunker Championship, if we observe all matches. Matter of luck in other matches which went "against" Croatia; - Iceland scored in 94th minute against Austria - Portugal missed penalty against Austria - Two very lucky Hungarian goals against Portugal
Tough luck from Croatia... they played well just lacked qeuresma.. ;-) Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk
pathetic football from Portugal. What a trashy performance of bunkering football. One of the most boring matches in history
Tactically speaking, it was a great performance. Considering that Portugal had generated the worst Net Expected Goals (4 goals for in 69 attempts and 4 goals conceded in 17 shots) after the group stage, had they played in the same style as the previous 3 matches, it would have allowed for countless Croatian counter-attacks. Those last 5 minutes is what everybody wanted to see as both teams are exciting on the attack, but Santos' response was the correct one. A run and gun game would've favoured Croatia, so credit to the coaching staff for their tactical adjustments. Credit as well to Croatia for their defensive discipline for the first 115 minutes. Had any of the 3 Croat players at the top of the box tracked Quaresma to goal though, it would've gone to penalties.
Respect. It's funny that Portugal is getting so much heat after this match thinking that we'll play the same way against Poland. The new players finally had a chance to play together and we parked the bus since croatian offensive transition would destroy a side that has some way to go to gel properly (something that Santos clearly neglected with his random tactical and roster selections throughout the qualifyings and friendlies). We had 3 new guys in the defensive line since Hungary plus Adrien taking a crucial role in the center midfield to connect the dots and be the main obstacle against Modric. The attacking line will still need to be look at (especially horrendous Nani, who everyone wants Rafa to play instead), but our defense looks so much more secure with José Fonte, Guerreiro and Cédric. I'm pretty sure we will be more offensive against Poland and quite possibly dominate the midfield. I'm having a tiny bit of hope on Santos after these changes and I hope they're enough to grow even more as a team in the next match.
I watched the whole game - lived up to the expectation for me as a football fan that can watch a game when two teams cancel each other out (no shots on net? come on - look how hard it was for pros trying working out a chance at this level). Croatia was the best thing out of central/eastern europe: since Croatia 98...since Shevchenko....it was a shame....and you could see at the end - tears in the players' eyes - tears in crowd.
This game just makes Ronaldo's comments about Iceland just that much more funny. Iceland looked like Barcelona compared to what Portugal did today. I understand defensive tactics but they didn't even try anything. Just a lot of fouling over and over and over and the referee forgot his yellow cards at home in the first half. I mean I guess it worked, but that's the last time Ronaldo gets to complain about another team bunkering. This game made me embarrassed to be a football fan. And not just because of the Portuguese catenaccio, but Croatia also had no courage in the box. They actually had at least 10 chances to create a shot on goal and everything went into row X. I hope Poland destroys this team so we don't have to see Ronaldo any more ... one of the ugliest personalities in world football today.
You guys LOST Portuguese talk on the pitch, Croatians and Eastern Europeans talk outside of it. Its okay you get another chance to cheer for your "Eastern European" Poland on Thursday! Lets see how that goes for ya!
We did defend deep but we tried to play football when we had the ball. We did a similar job to you guys that Iceland, Austria and Hungary did to us. CR can complain about whatever he likes because at the end of the day, it is the coach that picks the tactics. In relation to all the fouls, most of them were soft and others were the Croatians diving. The Spanish referee was happy to give them but you wouldn't see many of them given in more physical leagues. Ugly personality? Do you personally know him? You should do some reading on the things he does outside football and in relation to his football personality, maybe you should read Carlo Ancelotti's recent opinion piece on him (someone that worked with him for two seasons) instead of forming a biased opinion based on your personal NON experience with Ronaldo.